


Birds of a Feather

by Ghostyreader



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: And the violence will be canon levels, Friendship, Gen, Me. I’m the blueberry., No beta we die like blueberries, Season of the Hunt, This is Destiny the major character death will only be temporary, Will probably contain spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:08:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 21,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28010673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghostyreader/pseuds/Ghostyreader
Summary: My writings on the events starting from Season of the Hunt focusing on the relationship between Crow and the Player Character.Uses my Guardian Lurien.
Comments: 38
Kudos: 99





	1. First Meetings

“Don’t take this the wrong way but...It’s good to be working with another lightbearer.”

The words clung to Lurien’s mind. Repeating over and over. In the moment all he could have done was nod wordlessly, wincing when Crow’s faint smile faded to something more pensive. Now, Lurien let his head fall into his hands. 

Spec floated over to Lurien “So…. didn’t see this coming.”

Spec’s optic blinked as he spun the back of his shell, a gesture Lurien had come to understand as his Ghost thinking rather hard about something. “Will you be okay working with Crow?”

Lurien jerked upright, staring incredulously at Spec before remembering that his Ghost couldn’t see his expression through his helmet, why would he be asking?

“You do realize that working with him may mean you have to, you know… talk?” Spec asked, the words gave Lurien pause.

Oh, right.

It’d be okay. He fought worse. He willingly walked into one of the dark pyramids just recently. . He could make small talk. No problem! He wanted to bang his head against one of the metal walls but that would probably attract Crow’s attention while he was grabbing that lure thingy he had mentioned before walking off. 

He was doomed.

Maybe he could just stick to his usual? Strikes and Gambit matches usually went fine with just a gesture or so. And Crow had mentioned just hunting Wrathborn so who’s to say it wouldn’t end up being like Lurien was used to? He shoots, and someone chatters on the comms. 

Sufficiently reassured that the one main constant that had pervaded every moment of his life was still intact, Lurien made to get back to his feet just in time for Glint’s voice to pop up behind him.

“Found it!”

It took everything in him not to point his gun, or a solar grenade at the sudden and unexpected noise. But Lurien’s startle and full foot jump were not missed judging from the no-doubt amused huff Crow gave along with Spec’s own amused bobbing while the goggly eyes glued to his shell googled mockingly.

Or at least, that’s what Lurien thought to himself as his thoughts turned to whether or not “Googled mockingly” was a grammatically correct phrase or not. Probably not, but he didn’t quite care as he smoothed out his rumpled coat. 

“Enough you four, Xivu Arath gathers power with every passing minute.” Osiris’ voice came crackling over the comms, his attention no doubt drawn by his ability to seemingly sense unprofessional behavior even from half a solar system away. “I want to see what readings that lure will give us in tracking down the High Celebrant.”

“Is he... always like that?”  
  
Lurien answered Crow with a shrug. Kinda. He never had gotten that detailed apology letter even though it was something he never seriously held against the older warlock. An old joke with Sagira that now just felt bitter to think about rather than humorous.

The cryptolith wasn’t far from Spider’s safehouse. It was even still within sight of the entrance to the Hollowed Lair that brought up memories of being called a “Dead Thing” in a hissing sputter. Or maybe those same feelings were just stirred by the presence of the Hive architecture? Lurien did his best to push it from his mind as Crow showed him how to activate the lure, which parts went where and how to inject it into the cryptolith to activate it.

Of course that last part was a live demonstration as evidenced by the very large, very angry glowing green servitor that suddenly showed up with lots of very angry ‘friends’. At this point in his life Lurien really shouldn’t have expected anything else. 

Quickly grabbing Crow’s shoulder Lurien was only half paying attention as he shoved the younger Lightbearer behind him and incinerated a nearby dreg with signs of Xivu’s influence in a burst of solar fire. The ashes swirled around him as he turned, one hand throwing solar grenade after grenade while the other drew his gun. This was familiar. This he could handle without knotted worries clogging his throat.

It then felt like a jolt of surprise when before he could turn and blast another approaching dreg it was shot down. Lurien blinked in surprise before seeing Crow give him a nod, gun in hand and a few other Eliksni dead at his feet. Giving his companion a quick thumbs up Lurien turned back to the Servitor and focused on bringing it down only for it to flee while leaving behind a glowing residue.

Spec reappeared with a flash and scanned the residue, “Signal locked, uploading tracking details to your HUD.” he reported. With a nod of confirmation Lurien waited for his sparrow to be transmatted while Crow quickly grabbed a nearby pike that was probably parked by the cryptolith for that same reason. With a quick rev of their vehicles the two were off, Lurien’s sparrow quickly taking the lead with its lighter frame. 

It was odd to be riding along the patchwork routes that made up the Tangled Shore while following a tracker. Memories that felt older than they were came back to him as he raced over rusted metal bolted to rock. Similar; yet also not, he couldn’t help but think as he looked back to see Crow trailing behind on his pike. The feeling of deja vu only increased when he came to a stop just outside the path that lead to where he had killed the Rider.

“The trail leads inside.” Crow muttered as he clambered off his pike. His visible eye darted over to look between Lurien and the tunnel entrance. “Are you ready?”

Oh, Lurien was waiting for him to just take off. He supposed this was another difference between the current situation and his usual cooperative Strike missions. With a nod Lurien readied his gun and went inside, quickly dispatching the entrance guard and shooting a small entry hole in the barrier that barred their way. The whole time Crow was at his back and calling out targets.

Was this the difference between working with someone rather than just alongside?

Upon finding another cryptolith Lurien let Crow take the lead, but his thoughts were still stuck. He had come close to this kind of cooperation in raid missions but they usually fell apart outside of the missions themselves. A lot of times he wouldn’t see those temporary teammates again as they simply went on with their lives. Would this be like that?

Lurien shook the thoughts from his mind as a large shank appeared. He had one more idle curiosity wondering about how a machine like a shank was somehow corrupted by Xivu Arath before assuming it was more Hive Magic Bullshit and opening fire on a nearby glowing captain.

Ah, residue magic bullshit disrupted shield magic bullshit. How predictable.

A hiss of pain that wasn’t eliksni instantly drew Lurien’s attention to Crow who held a hand to his side while a vandal behind him lined up for another shot. It wouldn’t be safe for Glint to come out and heal him with how thickly the cryptolith’s presence saturated the area. In a heartbeat Lurien’s hand flared with solar light that he compressed into healing and threw it directly at Crow.

Crow saw the incoming flare of light and flinched back before blinking rapidly as the condensed light healed his wound and wrapped around him as a shimmering barrier. His visible eye met Lurien’s as the Guardian lowered his sniper, the vandal falling to the ground in a heap before he pointed behind the younger Lightbearer.

“Behind you”

Crow whipped around and dealt with the dreg trying to sneak up on him while Lurien turned back to the massive shank that had been continuously shooting at the shipping container he had been hiding behind. Did that thing ever stop?

Multiple magazines later the shank exploded and the remaining eliksni were finished off. Osiris had his data and probably wouldn’t say much until he needed more but it was Spider who got on the comms this time.

“Well done, now…” There was a gurgle of his rebreather, “send the Crow back to me.”

Lurien frowned under his helmet while Spec chimed in, “Shouldn’t that be his decision?”

Spider laughed, “He does whatever I tell him to. Why would I burden him with choice?”

Crow’s hooded head hung low as he started walking back and Lurien remembered the warning- if you could call it that, more of a threat- Spider had given about his ‘insurance of loyalty’. He had felt sick to his stomach then, and he felt it again now.

The only reason he hadn’t nova bombed spider then and there was because he didn’t know what would trigger the bomb. Lurien wouldn’t put it past Spider to have the damn thing linked to his own life vitals.

Jogging lightly to catch up to Crow he saw the younger Lightbearer looking at the spot where Lurien’s sparrow had dismantled itself. Thinking he probably was just wondering where it went, Lurien gave Spec the signal to re-transmatt it. But Crow’s shoulders only lowered just a fraction more and Lurien realized he probably made the wrong assumption. Looking over the beat-up pike he swallowed and steeled himself, hoping to the Light itself he didn’t mess this up.

Giving Crow a wave to catch his attention he then gestured to the hovering sparrow, and when that didn’t seem to get his intentions across he pointed at Crow, and then the sparrow.

“You… want me to ride your sparrow?”

Sorta? Crap, that didn’t work. Spec was right. He is always right but especially right now. Lurien’s first attempt ended in a dry cough but eventually he forced the words out, “Only- only if you want to.”

Crow’s eye snapped to Lurien and stared at him with a heavy, measuring intensity. “I don’t have the means to pay for any damages.”

Lurien shrugged and gave him a thumbs up, Amanda would probably yell at him but he had the glimmer to buy another sparrow if needed.

“I don’t know how to drive a City-made sparrow.”

Eh, Lurien had crashed countless times learning how. He gently pushed the sparrow closer to Crow.

After a few more seconds of deliberation Crow clambered onto the bike and stared at the controls with a perplexed look on what was visible of his face. Lurien slowly came closer, just enough to point out the levers on the hand grips. Once he saw that Crow was watching him he gave the levers a tap and mimed clamping down before flattening his hand and thrusting forward.

“Accelerate.”

He then mimed releasing the levers and pulling back on the handles, clenching a hand into a fist and pulling back before coming to a stop.

“Brakes.”

Crow had a look of dawning comprehension before he settled in, hands on the handles. Lurien gave him a few small pokes to adjust his position before the Lightbearer spoke again.

“You’re naturally quiet, aren’t you?” Lurien tilted his head curiously. To be honest he thought that would probably be obvious. “It’s not just me?”

Oh.

Lurien shook his head firmly while Spec flashed into existence next to him. “Lurien here isn’t too fond of talking in general. In fact, I think the most I heard you talk lately was around Eris.”

He nodded, then at Crow’s curious look brought a hand over his eyes to explain why. 

Spec bobbed in midair, “Ah, yeah, she does have vision problems. But we should probably start heading back to Spider. I don’t think he’d accept gossiping about Ren’s social difficulties as an excuse for being late.”

Lurien gave Spec a gentle swat before walking over to the pike. Someone probably had to bring it back to Spider’s safehouse and with one more thumbs up sent his way Crow nodded and took off in a blast of dust. The drive back was probably slower than it needed to be as Lurien puttered the pike along but he could always claim it was to prevent any damages to Spider’s precious property rather than give Crow as much time on his sparrow as he could.

At one point Crow took one of the more patchwork paths, jumping the sparrow over a gap and above Lurien’s head. There was a bit of a cut-off surprised yelp as he landed at an angle but Crow seemed fine and when he looked back Lurien sent him another thumbs up.

He was probably using that gesture too much but didn’t know how else to convey “You’re good!” without shouting. And he wasn’t Lord Shaxx, shouting would probably break his throat or something.

All too soon their ride back came to an end as the two stood awkwardly at the entrance to Spider’s safehouse. Sliding the lure off his back Crow held it out for Lurien to take by the clipped on strap. “Here, you’ll need to charge it back up but I have a feeling you could do that faster than I can.”

Lurien grabbed the lure and nodded.

“And,” Crow hesitated slightly before giving a nod of his own, “Thank you Lurien.”

“Ren. You can-” He coughed again and cleared his throat, “You can call me Ren.”

The small smile he got from Crow made him feel more accomplished than any of Shaxx’s medals.


	2. Days Go By

“You let him call you by a nickname.  _ My _ nickname.”

Lurien looked up at Spec briefly before looking back down the sights of his sniper. Variks had another lead on a way to sabotage House Salvation and now here he was on Europa, almost buried in snow while waiting for more brigs to show up. 

“You only ever let me call you that ever since you finally agreed on a name.”

His cheeks flushed with faint embarrassment. He and Spec had gone without names for a few years, and in truth he hadn’t seen the need. He was himself, it didn't matter what he was called. Spec had tried multiple names but none stuck.

Then he went into that pyramid.

_ “Don’t you recognize us?” _

It was obviously something meant to just mess with him, but it worked. He started questioning what made him himself and didn’t like how often he came up blank. Names had always just been pushed off with the excuse of being busy, but he hadn't realized so much else had been ignored as well. He and his ghost had sat down and came up with names for each other before they even left the Moon’s orbit that day.

His ghost had suggested “Lurien”, saying it was half-remembered from some old pre-Golden Age story he had liked and sounded like illumination. Light. 

And Lurien had softly offered “Spec”, admittedly uncreative but short for spectre and spectator. After all, his ghost was always looking out for him, and he couldn’t resist sneaking in a ‘little light’ reference if one misspelled it as ‘speck’. He had decided to keep the last part to himself though.

“Reeeeeen? Ren? Ren, are you there? Ghost to Ren.”

Lurien tilted his head back to look at Spec.

“Oh good! You are still alive!” Spec’s optic glowed brightly, “Now, you wanna explain why you told Crow he could call you Ren? After you refused to answer Drifter when he tried until he stopped?”

Spec twirled his shell, “Wait!” Then went absolutely still. Lurien was instantly on edge, did he pick up something on radar? “Is my guardian making his first friend? Is that it?”

Oh no. Lurien regretted everything that led to this moment. Please, something shoot him now.

He wasn’t sure if he should be thankful or not that a nearby brig listened.

*

Another day, another hunt. Looking Crow over in a now habitual check to make sure the younger lightbearer was alright Lurien saw him grimacing at his revolver. Ammo shortage perhaps? Pulling out a spare box of rounds he held it out for Crow to take.

“Oh, I have plenty.”

Lurien tilted his head, then why?

Seeing the unsaid question Crow explained, “I don’t know what it is. I just don't like the sounds they make.” He holstered the revolver as Lurien went still, guilty ice clenching his heart. “And Spider hasn’t given me anything else besides that sword I scavenged.”

His hand clenched tightly around the box of spare ammo as Lurien took a deep breath. Spider tread on thinner and thinner ice every damn day things like this came up and- and he was feeling too cold for it to be normal. Another couple of deep breaths helped Lurien drain his anger away. The Darkness puts a spotlight on desires huh? Maybe just the ones it wanted people to focus on Lurien thought. Although this was certainly a rather ironic way of discovering he apparently had over-protective tendencies. 

But he was spending too long in his head going by Crow’s expression. Pulling back the spare ammo box Lurien reached into his side-bag and removed a data pad. It took a bit but he managed to log into his vault and set the view filter to guns before handing it over to Crow. 

Crow carefully took the pad, holding it far too gently considering he had just watched Lurien smack the thing a few times to get it to turn on. “Take your pick.” 

Crow’s eye darted up to look at Lurien at the rare spoken statement. At that very moment though Spec decided to materialize, “You’re  _ sharing your guns!? _ This is going in the scrapbook, you never sh-HEY!”

The rest of his sentence was muffled as Lurien grabbed Spec out of midair and stuffed him into his bag. The whole time doing his absolute best to act like nothing had happened.

Eventually, and after a bit more reassurance Crow settled on a scout rifle and a submachine gun. Lurien wanted him to grab a sniper too after seeing how he lingered on that category but Crow said he was good. 

Four days later Lurien slouched into Crow’s work-station in Spider’s safehouse and dropped a shiny new sniper Banshee-44 had called “Adored” into his surprised hands. The last few days of back-to-back strike operations were worth it to see Crow’s excited grin as he realized it was now his.

*

Lurien and Crow stood in a Well of Radiance, a dead Wrathborn laying a few feet away. Crow and Glint had the next 36 hours to themselves and Lurien had quietly cleared his schedule for the next 24. Zavala had messaged him asking why he canceled on a strike operation but Lurien just sent him the log of his past week filled day and night under the subject line ‘I want sleep’. 

He’d feel guilty about the unprofessionalism and the sorta lie later, but seeing Crow’s face light up when Lurien offered to help him test his light made it hard to feel like he was slacking in his duties. Future-him would just have to deal with the guilt of seeing Zavala’s Disappointed Look.

For now Lurien was trying to explain how he converted solar light into healing. Crow’s first question had been about the healing orb that had been thrown at him on their first hunt together and after several failed attempts to explain it Lurien had conjured a Well. Crow’s eyes were wide with a look of awe as he reached out to the glowing Dawnblade embedded in the ground. Wisps of radiant light curled around his hands while specks of light danced around his fingers. 

“I never realized the Light of other Lightbearers could feel so-” He paused, and Lurien waited till he found the word he was looking for, “Gentle.”

It was another jagged jigsaw piece to a puzzle Lurien was  _ really  _ starting to not like. But instead of digging he put aside the implications of that statement for now.

“You bring this out in the middle of a fight? I can- almost feel a half-present emotion when I grip the sword, a soft warmth? Encouragement?” Crow mused before he started looking between the blade and Lurien with a startle.

Lurien didn’t blame him for how skeptical he sounded in the first half of that sentence and chose not to embarrass him more with the later, “Here and now? Yes.” He paused to drink some water and rub at his sore jaw, glad that he had taken off his helmet after agreeing to help Crow. “In a fight? Mainly defiance. A feeling of, ‘Here I claim, here I make my stand. Here I make safe from all that dare say otherwise.’ but with a lot less words.”

It felt, odd, to be talking as much as he had just today. With how much the Light was tied to himself conveying how he harnessed it through gestures just wouldn’t work. Not to mention the gap between warlock and -what Lurien was willing to bet a lot of glimmer on- hunter. But despite how much his jaw hurt or his voice cracked Lurien’s words got steadier the more he explained. 

Crow made a sound of understanding, “Hence the,” He mimed the downwards stabbing motion Lurien had done when conjuring the Well to which he nodded. 

Talking to Crow also felt easier the more time Lurien spent around him. There weren't crushing levels of expectation or feeling like he had to meet high standards. It was... open. With Crow he wasn’t Hivebane or Godslayer, or even Red War Hero. Instead, he felt more like- like Lurien. Like the name wasn’t a mask to hide from the Darkness behind but an actual person. Like himself.

He gave his sore jaw another rub with the heel of his hand and noticed how Crow’s eyes followed the motion. Lurien tilted his head, giving him the prompt to ask.

“You're quite skilled at healing but, is your jaw injured?”

Lurien sighed deeply as he and Spec exchanged a look. “Never felt much need to talk, had my orders, went and did them. Then it became a habit. Then there was the whole,” He gestured vaguely, “Taken War.” It wasn’t very descriptive, but he honestly couldn’t say when he started to just avoid talking.

“Ren’s naturally quiet, but he also tends to open up only to a select few. For the longest time it was just me but he eventually started to open up. A sentence here and there. Then the Red War hit.” His shell drooped, “We lost our Light, and he was kicked off that ship.”

Lurien shuddered and Spec flew close, nestling in his hair, “When I finally found him I didn’t have enough Light to heal everything so I focused on the life-threatening wounds first. A cracked jawbone didn’t seem as important as a punctured lung.”

Even Glint’s optimism seemed a bit down as Lurien spoke up, “We got our Light back but sometimes it still feels like a bruise when I talk a lot.”

“If it hurts-” Lurien shook his head to dismiss Crow’s worries.

“A little pain never stopped me from doing what’s important.” He said. 

Crow gave him a grin as the Well vanished into small wisps of Light while Lurien grinned back. 

Not everything had to be said aloud for the message to get across. But sometimes saying the message out loud made it more tangible.


	3. New Clothes

That was the fifth time in thirty minutes that Crow sent Lurien a glance and for the life of him he just couldn’t figure out why. He didn’t have any cursed thrall goo on him- he’d checked- and the latest hunt had gone smoothly. When he caught the next glance Lurien placed a hand on his hip and tilted his head.

Crow ducked further into his hood. “I was just wondering where the purple came from.”

Oh.

Lurien looked down at his now purple and brown comemorant blade coat. He had been flipping through various shaders he had collected from Tess over the years while flying to the Dreaming City and had settled on one she’d labeled ‘Chitin Slate’. In his defence it wasn’t like it was neon orange or anything.

“That’s normal.” Spec explained.

Crow raised an eyebrow.

Now Lurien wanted a hood to hide in as Spec elaborated, “Well, normal for Ren. He changes his shaders once a week usually or the style of his robes, or both. In fact, I don’t think he’s had a consistent look since I first rezzed him. Although he does tend to favor browns and blacks, and this jacket seems to be his favorite.”

Thank the Light he had a helmet on otherwise Crow would no doubt be able to see the hot embarrassment on his face as he turned to look at Lurien and wordlessly ask ‘why?’.

Lurien shrugged, he just… felt like doing it?

Crow’s incredulous look almost made him never want to change shaders ever again. Was this why Lord Shaxx kept his same helmet for centuries? Spec continued to betray him.

“He even offers me shaders at least once a month. In fact, I used to have this really pretty shell before the last Festival of the Lost hit.” He gave an overly dramatic sigh, “He saw the googly eyes and gave me the puppy eyes. I just couldn’t say no, but I suppose it’s worth it if they make him laugh whenever I have to give Zavala a debrief.”

Glint started snickering first, then Crow started as well when Spec did a bob that really got the googly eyes moving. But Lurien? He wanted the ground to swallow him whole. Yet as Crow started laughing at Spec’s reenactments of mock-serious reports he decided the embarrassment was worth it. As Crow’s eye seemed to glow even brighter while he brought up a hand to muffle his snickers it hit Lurien that this was the first time he’d heard Crow laugh.

So when the younger Lightbearer looked at him while still snickering he decided fuck it, not like he had any dignity anyway. Lurien gave a very put-upon, very defeated slump and Crow stopped holding his chuckles back. 

*

“You know, allowing Crow to join the fight would result in a 62.1% increased success rate.” Glint’s voice crackled over the comms while Lurien peeked out from behind a rock to shoot at the Wrathborn ogre. 

“I calculated 58.2%” Spec countered, “But that doesn’t matter. We can’t risk him being seen here. Maybe next week when Petra isn’t so close.”

Spec had a point. With the cryptolith they were investigating only a few meters away from Petra’s field-camp this week he and Lurien had asked Crow to hide up in the nearby cliffs and stay out of sight. 

Despite how necessary it was, Lurien had found himself missing Crow’s aid when he’d gone back to vanguard operations, he felt it even more now after having gotten used to it while fighting wrathborn. But Petra was a can of worms and mixed feelings neither he nor both ghosts wanted to deal with while everything else was still going on. Finally the ogre went down, though Lurien felt like it took his eardrums with it.

“Channel is secure. It’s just you and Lurien.”

Crow’s voice came on the comm not long after Glint, “There’s a woman who’s taken notice of me.”

Oh shit.

“Now’s not really the time for romance…” Glint teased.

“I’ve tried to lose her in the mists, but she’s very skilled.” There was the sound of Crow’s boots scuffling over stone.

“Wait… does she have an eyepatch?”

Shit. They had tried to avoid this exact scenario! “You know her? Do you know her name?” Crow asked.

Peeking over Lurien saw that Petra was missing from her usual spot but a nearby cave gave him an idea. “Spec! I have a plan.”

*

Crow slid around another rock just in time for his vision to be covered in light. “Glint!?”

“I know you’re there!” The woman called out.

His slight startle at her call blended in with the jump that came from hearing Ren’s voice from a speaker by his ear, “Act like me, we’ll explain later.”

Looking down he saw Ren’s purple and brown coat, it wasn’t a perfect fit but close enough apparently as he stepped out from behind the rock while Glint appeared by his head forcing him to bite his tongue to keep from telling his ghost to hide.

Before him stood an awoken woman dressed in white and purple. Her remaining eye pierced him where he stood along with the raised rifle. 

“It’s just us!” Spec’s voice came from Glint’s shell as he realized what was going on, “Don’t shoot!”

Crow gave a short hello salute like he had seen Ren give Osiris before the knight had knocked the former warlock down.

Instantly the woman’s frosty demeanor turned warm, a grin splitting her face, “Cousin! Long time no see! New look again I see, almost didn’t recognize you.”

Cousin?! 

“Sorry, you know how my guardian is.” Spec said through Glint.

She gave a short laugh, rifle down by her side, “I do indeed, and it seems like he got you again too Little Light. What brings you back to the Dreaming City? Last I heard you were deployed to Luna again.”

Crow was so confused. Glint had mentioned Ren had a few notable achievements, and he couldn’t deny that he was curious, Ren had seemed knowledgeable about navigating the hive tunnels on Luna when they met. Outwardly he just gave a shrug.

“We’re investigating the cryptoliths.” Spec explained while Glint bobbed like the other ghost would. “Haven’t figured out much yet but we’re sending what data we can back to the Vanguard.”

The woman’s smile dimmed, “Ah yes, those. As if we didn’t have enough problems here. I won’t keep you then, I can see you’re busy. But do drop by sometime when you get the chance, it’d be nice to catch up.”

Crow gave her a thumbs up as Ren’s ship came by overhead. 

“Before you go though,” She hesitated, “You haven’t seen-” The woman cut herself off and Crow tilted his head in question.

“Nevermind.” She said with a small, sad smile, “Farewell cousin.”

And before anything else happened he and Glint were transmatted onto the ship in a crumpled heap. From the window he could see that they were going into orbit before Spec appeared in front of his face. 

“Are you okay? We’re heading back to the Shore, I know you’d rather get away from there when you get the chance but we’ll avoid the Dreaming City for this week.”

Behind the fussing ghost Crow could see Ren pulling away from the controls. The older guardian was dressed in what looked like spare ragged robes he had probably pulled from some engrams he had no doubt packed away, and his yellow eyes checked Crow over for any injuries while a worried frown pulled at his mouth. 

It was just as odd seeing him without his helmet now as it had been the first time, spiky black hair with fly-away strands and black under-eye paint. Crow had honestly expected a more worn and older appearance, similar to Osiris when he’d first removed his helmet. Not that appearance mattered when the Light was involved. But Ren’s face was blatantly expressive and the naked worry all over felt both odd and comforting.

It reminded him of when he had held the blade of Ren’s well. The Light had wrapped around him like a warm blanket but when he held the blade… encouragement, patience, happiness, protectiveness. There hadn’t been any duplicity, hidden resentment, nothing. 

It was strange- good strange- but strange.

“I’m okay.” He assured, and Ren’s worry melted into a sheepish grin.

“Good, sorry about not asking but…”

Crow then realized he was still wearing Ren’s coat. “Ah, it’s okay. I assume she knew who I used to be?”

Ren’s eyes darkened and he sighed before nodding and Crow winced, remembering her hard look when she first rounded on him. 

Spec and Glint exchanged glances before the former spoke up, “It’s complicated.” Glint bobbed, “A conversation for another time perhaps?”

Crow didn’t miss the concerned glance Ren shot Glint as he let the topic drop.

“Is she really your cousin?” He blurted out.

Ren went still, eyes wide with surprise while Spec started to chuckle. “No.” He said while his cheeks gained a faintly purple hue. “She started calling me that after I helped her deal with some Taken in the City. That and some other small favors. I think it’s just ‘cuz I’m awoken. Probably former-Reefborn.”

Glint shot Spec a look that Crow knew from experience said, ‘Really?’ and Spec started to laugh even louder.

Oooookay?

“So, where’s my clothes?”

Glint perked up, “I got them engramed!”


	4. Worries

Crow grinned as he heard a familiar set of boots step into his workroom. “Excellent timing.” He said as he started turning around, “I was just about to message you. I found a way to impro- Ren?”

Spec had warned him of Ren’s wardrobe habit but it still threw him slightly to see an entirely different coat, this one with beige quilted side panels and strips of cloth wrapped around his arms. The height was the same and the ghost floating at his shoulder was Spec. But this version of Ren was slumped, swaying slightly from foot to foot and the normally warm presence of his Light reduced to what felt like sputtered sparks rather than the gentle campfire Crow had gotten used to.

Spec floated closer to Crow and even the ghost looked worn; shell flaps drooping and googly eyes still. “Hey Crow, sorry to drop by unannounced we just… we wanted somewhere quiet.”

Spider chose that exact moment to call for his salvage team. Loudly.

Crow gave Ren a skeptical look while Spec wilted even further. “We’re exhausted, had a mission that went FUBAR in multiple ways, saw another one of those damn statues and…”

“Can we just.. stay here a while? If it’ll cause problems we’ll find somewhere else. We can’t handle any other missions right now. But we also-” His voice dropped low, “We don’t want to be alone.”

He and Glint exchanged a look, both of them mentally running the scenario. “It should be fine for a few hours. I wanted to work on the lure for a bit as well.”

The lure appeared in Ren’s hands with a flash of light before being dropped off on Crow’s worktable. Then, without any further prompting Ren slouched over to another table on the far side of the room, crawled under it and curled up to sleep. It was out of the way and with how small he was it was hard to even tell he was there. But what concerned Crow was how it was done in absolute silence.

“It's been… a long day.” Spec sighed.

“Is he okay?” Crow asked quietly, eyes glued to Ren’s still form. He could just barely make out the other Lightbearer’s breathing. 

“Elizabeth gathered a team and wanted us on it.” Spec explained as Glint flew over and gave him a quick scan. “We’re okay. But listening to her describe things and seeing- seeing-”

His shell drooped so low Crow reflexively reached out his hand to catch the ghost just in case but was still surprised when Spec actually dropped into it. “Thanks. The whole thing is probably classified to the Ascendent Relm and back, or will be. But, thirty-two resurrections in a handful of hours, or was it more? I think I lost count.”

Crow’s eyes widened as he felt ice clutch his heart, “What?!” Glint asked as he zoomed in close to the other ghost, transitioning into full fussing mode. “No wonder you both look so worn. You should get some sleep too-”

Spec’s eye blinked as he picked up a call. “Sorry I should take this. Yes Commander Zavala?”

The small ghost shuffled his shell in agitation as Crow felt his breath catch.

“Yes it’s done. I sent you a message when we went in- I assure you the situation was essential- Yes it really was the DSC. Commander, I will send you the recording directly, it should answer all your questions.” Spec fell silent for a bit as the Vanguard Commander was no doubt replying.

“He’s in one piece, just resting now. For once. No we aren’t at the Tower. We’re with a friend. Yes we trust them. Yes that one. Did Osiris mention a name?”

Oh; Crow thought distantly, they were talking about him.

Then the rest of Spec’s disjointed statements hit him like a Hive Ogre and he looked down at the small ghost- that wasn’t Glint!- resting in his hand. They came to him first. They wanted to be near him. Trusted him to keep them safe. Crow remembered Ren’s half-step away from him when he stepped into sight back when they met on Luna. To think that things had changed so much from what he had been afraid of happening.

Swallowing hard and ignoring the sting in his eyes Crow put his thoughts aside to listen to Spec as the ghost’s voice picked up again.

“I know this conversation isn’t over but we’ll come to have it in person later. He’s finally getting some sleep. This situation can’t be solved by our usual methods, trust me we considered it.” He paused before indignantly crying out, “We can be patient!”

Crow had to bring up his other hand to muffle his snickers while Glint’s eye shined with amusement. Neither of which Spec missed judging by the glare the ghost sent.

“12 hours Commander, please.” A pause, “Thank you. I appreciate it. Sending the video now.”

Spec then ended the call and looked up at Crow, “Sorry about that.”

Crow nodded and opened his mouth to ask a question before thinking better of it. But Spec caught the aborted motion, “What is it?”

“You don’t... have a home back in the City?” He then thought of his own hideaway, “Or a small place just for yourselves?”

Spec fell to a contemplative silence for a bit, “No. We were assigned a small apartment when we first came to the City but it got destroyed when the Red Legion attacked.” He chuckled, “It was never used with how busy we were. And after the Red War we continued to sleep in our ship more than anywhere else and didn’t bother signing up for another apartment with all the chaos getting things rebuilt. Better a nice place go to a family that needed it than us to use once a year maybe.”

Crow didn’t know what to think of that, neither did Glint apparently since he was shooting Crow a surprised look. 

Spec then blinked with another call. “Oh, what now?!”

Biting his lip not to laugh at the irate ghost Crow leaned back on his workbench as Spec picked up another call. 

“What?!” Spec hissed before calming down. “Sorry Banshee, it’s been a long- oh? Oh.” He let out a long suffering sigh, “Yes, we were involved. You’ll need to discuss details with Commander Zavala. What?”

Spec fell silent, “We’ll check it out later. When we have information we’ll let you know.”

He hung up. “Okay that’s it. I’m blocking all calls from here on out.” He said, once more tuning in to present company. 

“You should get some rest too.” Glint fussed. “We can excuse a few hours to work on the lure. Slowly. With multiple unforeseen and unexpected delays.” 

Spec caught on quickly as Glint and Crow exchanged conspiratory glances. “Thank you. But only if it won’t get you in trouble.”

Crow dropped his voice to a whisper, just in case, “We can get away with this, consider it thanks for all the Dreaming City hunts you take me with.”

“We’d drag you anywhere you wanted to go if we thought we could get away with it.” Spec muttered and oh. He blinked quickly to try and keep the tears at bay.

Crow walked Spec over to where Ren was still curled up under the table. Slowly; in a manner that reminded Crow of days when he really didn’t want to get out of bed but had to, Spec gathered his shell back up and floated over to his guardian who woke up enough to wrap his hands around Spec and draw him in. 

With a small grin Crow made to leave the two when he felt a tap on his boot. When he looked down he saw Ren giving him a sleepy thumbs up. 

Crow returned the gesture.

*

In the end Crow and Glint were only able to give them four hours before one of Spider’s underlings came to them with another mission. He let the Eliksni know he understood his orders with a nod before walking over to the table Ren was still curled up under and gently shook his shoulder.

Ren’s helmet visor came up to look at him.

“I’m sorry, Spider is sending me out and you shouldn’t sleep here alone.” Crow said softly, looking away at a small wrinkle in the rug. 

He had wanted to give them more time. Crow almost didn’t even need to purposely make mistakes on the lure with how distracted he had been thinking about all the things that could have happened to Ren and Spec on their mission. Thirty-two deaths in the time between seeing Ren give him a cheeky salute before walking off after getting a call to walking into his workstation like a silent husk of himself. It had only been twenty hours.

What if they’d died? Would he have even known? Ren and Spec had always seemed so competent in a fight, what could they have ran into that gave them so much trouble even on a team with others? Ren was primarily a healer. He had softly mentioned that his Well of Radiance was his favorite way to channel his Light when trying to teach Crow how to at the very least summon some Light to heal himself with. 

Back at the time Glint had teased about Crow taking his job before Ren had somberly said it was a ‘Just in case’ for situations that would be too dangerous for Glint to come out in. The haunted expression he wore was enough for the both of them to drop the teasing and for Crow to redouble his efforts. 

So why had Ren been asked to go on such a dangerous mission? What was the ‘DSC’? What was this ‘statue’ that had unnerved Spec so much?

A hand on his shoulder took Crow out of his worries as he refocused on the present. Ren had gotten up and was standing in front of him. He was steadier than when he had first walked in, and with how close they were Crow could feel that his Light was closer to normal. 

He took a deep breath. 

Ren was still here. Spec hovering at his shoulder. They were okay. They were both still here.

They were both still here.

“Crow?”

He looked over from Ren’s hand on his shoulder to Spec. “Thank you.”

Ren’s visor was focused on him and stared for a few seconds silently. Spec looked between the two guardians before nestling into the crook of Ren’s neck and shoulder. 

“You should go. And don’t forget the lure.” Crow said.

Ren gave his shoulder a quick squeeze before letting go and Crow felt himself missing the contact as he stored the lure away and turned to walk out of the small room.

“And stay safe.” He blurted out.

Ren looked back and stared, body language showing surprise before he nodded and gave Crow a thumbs up.

Crow returned the gesture with a small grin.

They’d be alright.

The last of Crow’s worries finally eased when Ren gave him a soft “Hello” when he next dropped by to show off a downright frightening chainsaw sword while wearing bright purples and shining silver armor.

They were both alright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always felt that Ren wouldn’t be the only one to worry.


	5. Hawkmoon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that Hawkmoon quest huh?

Lurien leaned back with a faint grin as Glint tried and failed to stop Crow from taking another drink of the wine he had pulled out of somewhere. The pink ghost gave up at his latest failure to be listened to as a voice of reason and looked to Spec for support.

Spec sent his guardian a withering glare, “Sober since the day I found you. All for nothing.”

Lurien and Crow exchanged conspiratory glances before bursting into fits of laughter.

“This is all your guardian’s fault.” Spec groaned.

“Mine? Yours is the one who’s weak to Crow’s puppy eyes.” Glint shot back.

The two ghosts bickered playfully, the infectious cheer from their guardians easing their own worries that they’d hurt themselves. Especially Lurien as Spec had to pause to nudge him away from the bonfire since he was sitting too close for Spec’s comfort. 

“This is your first time drinking?” Crow asked curiously.

Lurien blinked before nodding. “Eva’s ‘Revelry Drink’ might come close. But Spec said that it was more Light infused sugar syrup than anything else.”

Crow looked skeptical, “Light infused sugar syrup?”

He nodded, “For the Revelry she sent whole droves of guardians out after hyping them up on sugar that made our Light replenish faster.” Eyes wide he leaned in and gestured expansively, “Grenades, grenades  _ everywhere _ .”

The younger Lighbearer broke down in laughter, “It’s almost too easy imagining you hyped up on sugar and running amok.”

Lurien pouted. “What are you trying to say?”

Crow’s gold eyes shined above his mischievous grin, “That if today was any indication you were eating one of those void grenades of yours and swinging a disproportionately large sword around.” 

With one hand he swung the bottle around like the ‘disproportionately large sword’ in question, nearly hitting Lurien in the process as he leaned back with a sheepish grin.

“Less sword, more fireballs.” He admitted. 

Shaking his head Crow put the bottle down, “You nearly scared the Light out of me earlier though. I was trying to pick off as many Taken as I could with my sniper-” he mimed a gun with his fingers and shot it at imaginary Taken “-but there were just too many. And then there’s this flash of purple and you abandon cover to start tearing them all apart with that chainsaw sword of yours.”

“Sorry.” Lurien muttered as he ducked his head low. The Taken were swarming and by now it barely took a thought to trust in his Light to continuously heal him with each foe he killed.

“You better be! I was afraid I’d hit you by accident!” Crow reprimanded as he gave Lurien a poke on the shoulder. “And after watching you bounce off walls and that one pipe so many times I’ll admit I was a bit worried when I saw all of those Taken around you.”

Flushing a deep purple he rubbed his sore jaw and muttered excuses about not being used to having backup on missions like that and how he’d have been fine and that he hadn’t even considered it because he knew Crow was a good shot and how it was just a couple Taken.

“Just a couple?” Crow echoed incredulously, “Ren…” He trailed off, giving Lurien a long searching look before sighing. 

“Are you okay? You’ve been quieter than usual on, well, all of this.”

Had he? 

Actually he probably had been. Crow’s description of his dreams brought back flashes of his own after falling from Ghaul’s ship, the similarities were almost too uncanny. Those memories and the still lingering fog of pain, worry and so many other emotions mixed with his present worries for Crow. Both the concern about what he shared of his past and Lurien’s worries that his current visions would be a call to action like his own sparked off. 

Contrary to how others would describe it, his ‘one man rampage’ across the solar system against the Red Legion was a blur of fighting and stress even to this day. 

He didn’t want Crow to go through that. 

Not when Crow was so happy to have helped kill just a few Taken and reforged an old gun. It achieved so  _ little _ when compared to the seemingly unending wave of Darkness. The few Taken they’d killed had no doubt already been replaced in Savathun’s armies. He could already hear how there was so much more to do and-

“Exactly like that.”

Lurien blinked back to the present, with Crow’s worried face a few inches from his own and both ghosts watching silently. 

“What’s wrong?”

The fire crackled as Crow leaned back to grab the bottle and pass it over to Lurien. He grabbed it with numb fingers and stared down at it. 

“Honestly I don’t even know.” He sighed before looking back up at Crow who was now sitting next to him. Hood down and firelight lighting up his face. “You should still enjoy yourself though, we accomplished a lot today.” 

The lie felt like ash on his tongue despite the drink he took to try and wash it down.

“I could say the same to you my friend.” Crow said softly.

Lurien froze. 

Friend.

They were friends, weren’t they? Friends. He didn’t know when it had happened. When had he started to joke and laugh, to stop and reach a hand out, to actually look forward to something as simple as seeing someone?

His throat tight and eyes stinging with sudden tears. Why was he crying? Nothing bad had happened, no one was dead, no one was hurt. Was it the alcohol? He was never drinking again if it made him spontaneously start crying. 

But he couldn’t help but think about it, he really did have a friend.  _ Lurien  _ had a friend. Not ‘Guardian’ had a friend. Not Godslayer. Not Hivesbane. Not The Young Wolf. Eris was a friend, so was Saint, so was Elsie- tentative and new as their companionship was- but they were also mentors first, comrades first, those bonds weighed down by too many responsibilities. But Crow was … he was Lurien’s friend. 

Oh, and now his friend was freaking out. Crow. His friend. He had a friend. More tears blurred his vision as he heard  _ his friend _ frantically ask Spec and Glint what he should do. 

It surprised him when he felt a hand pat his back tentatively, “Please…. Don’t cry?” Crow pleaded.

“Seems like he’s an emotional drunk.” Glint mused, “Any ideas Spec?”

“How should I know?!” Spec retorted, “He’s happy, but also sobbing?”

“He’s your Guardian!” 

“I’m just- I’m just-” Lurien could barely get the words past the lump in his throat. Instead he reached out and grabbed Spec and Crow into a hug. Glint only escaped by being out of reach but Lurien waved him over. “I’m glad you’re my friends.” He said just barely above a whisper.

Crow stiffened under Lurien’s arm. Quickly letting go he furiously rubbed away the tears blurring his eyes and sniffled. “Sorry,” he felt like kicking himself. “I shouldn’t have- not without- Should’ve asked.”

What if Crow was like Eris? She wasn’t one to accept or give hugs, preferring to keep her personal space carefully maintained. He understood why, and had worked on banishing the phantoms as quickly as he could after seeing them crowd her and how they made her curl in on herself. 

Glint bumped his flaps gently against Crow’s cheek. “Group hug?” 

“Group hug!” Spec cheered as he dove right into the crook of where Lurien’s neck met his shoulder.

With a roll of his eyes and a fond smile Crow reached over and gave Lurien a short shoulder hug. This time looking more bemused than alarmed when the older Guardian burst into a fresh round of tears. 

“Should I be concerned that this revelation only just now hit you?” He teased. 

“Probably not,” Spec answered, “Ren’s always been his own biggest blind-spot. But on the bright side I now have another picture for my scrapbook!”

Lurien dropped his head into his hands and groaned. 

“Scrapbook?” Crow and Glint parroted in sync. Crow with trepidation, and Glint with eager curiosity.

Spec’s shell contracted around his optic- his own version of a shit-eating grin- and said, “Of all my Guardian’s firsts! I have a photo of his first faceplant when trying to float, of when he blew himself up with his own nova bomb the first time, of his first sparrow crash.” Each was embellished with embarrassing photos of Lurien in each situation Spec described holographically presented for all to see. 

“And now I’ve got his first hug!”

“Wait, what?” Crow asked but his question was drowned out by Glint’s eager, “Oh! Crow’s in that one! Send me a copy!”

Lurien grinned from ear to ear. Was he embarrassed? Oh yes, his cheeks were probably still a rather deep purple. But Spec was becoming fast friends with Glint it seemed and Lurien didn’t mind Crow seeing the no-doubt enormous pile of photos Spec had. Now if it was Zavala or Saint.... Nope, too scary a thought. Not even gonna finish that one. 

Looking back over to Crow he saw the other Lightbearer shake his head at the conspiring ghosts before taking another drink from the bottle. “Glad to see I’m not the only one with a Ghost who likes to embarrass me.”

Remembering how Glint had called Crow’s hideaway his ‘Crow’s Nest’ Lurien tried, but failed to hide his chuckle. 

When their laughter died down Crow fell silent for a while as he stared into the bonfire. 

“Ren?”

“Hmm?”

“I’m- I’m glad you’re my friend too.”

Lurien smiled through the next round of tears. 

*

The bonfire was little more than a few smoldering coals at this point. 

Crow snored softly from his spot on the ground, having fallen asleep not long after he had insisted on being fine when he’d flopped over. 

Lurien used Lament to poke at the coals, grinning to himself at the thought of Clovis’s AI seeing what he was using the ‘super-special’ sword for. It was fun to be petty at times.

Both Ghosts were still whispering to each other. Lurien and Crow should probably be afraid of whatever they were cooking up but that was a problem for their future selves. 

A cool breeze went through the makeshift camp, ruffling Crow’s hair as it went. As quietly as he could Lurien shuffled out of his overcoat and laid it over him like a blanket, ignoring the sound of Spec taking  _ another _ picture as he did so. Sitting back he pulled out Hawkmoon and stared at the gun.

Glint had mentioned the Traveller having a higher purpose planned for them, a Grand Design. Lurien felt like it was more that the Traveller simply believed in them. That it believed that if given a second chance, a fresh start, and support then people would  _ do good _ . Of course that wasn’t always the case. 

Lurien put Hawkmoon away as his thoughts turned back to Crow’s vision. He dreamed of being a bird, and feathers of Light had been left in places he’d dreamed of.

When he’d fallen from Ghaul’s ship Lurien had dreamed of  _ following  _ a hawk made of Light. Before now he’d always assumed it represented the Traveller, or even Lewis. But now? Looking over to Crow once more Lurien wasn’t sure if that vision had more messages to still listen to. 

He wasn’t sure if he should tell Crow yet. Lurien didn’t want to pressure him, didn’t want him to feel like the vision was his only reason to be around him. 

But he didn’t want to keep any more secrets from Crow than he had to. 

Crow trusted him. Trusted him enough to share this. 

Lurien wanted to live up to that trust.

After all, they’d both achieved something great today.

They were friends.

*

  
  



	6. Ebb and Flow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay I’m gonna admit right here I didn’t play D1. But this is inconsistent indulgence and I stayed up till 3am editing and writing this so *Will Smith pose*

Crow tapped on the old data-pad in front of him, cross referencing Wrathborn sightings and marking them on a map of the Tangled Shore. The hunts he and Ren went on helped cull the numbers, but Spider’s smuggler routes would need to avoid where the Wrathborn tended to congregate. 

Glint gave off a chime from his perch on Crow’s shoulder, leading him to give a soft hum of question. 

“Spec sent me another message.” He said.

That was odd, they didn’t have any hunts scheduled till later today as far as he was aware…

“They’re going to be unavailable for the next few hours and won’t be able to receive any messages. Also that we’ll probably have to reschedule those hunts we had planned.”

Crow paused in his work.

“Did they say where they were going?”

Glint’s eye blinked up at him. “That Scarlet Keep on Luna. Or rather, under it.”

Crow took a deep breath and let it out slowly, his chest tight with worry. 

He wasn’t an idiot. Nor was he unobservant. For as much as he knew Ren as the friendly Guardian that would trip on carpet folds and challenge him to accuracy matches even though he lost every time. And even how Ren would stumble through trying to explain how he manifested his Light but patiently try again and again with every question Crow had. Despite all of that there were moments. 

Moments where Ren would go eerily silent and ruthless, especially when fighting the hive. When he’d stand and shoot without flinching even as an ogre barrelled down at him. When all the warmth would leech out of the air around him for a second before he’d reign it in. When his Light would narrow to a lazer-hot focus as he’d brought it to bear on whatever dared stand before him and leave nothing but ash. 

Moments when he’d overhear Spider making references to when Ren had last worked with him. When Ren had brushed off all those agitated Taken as ‘Just a few’ or how he’d talk about how busy he always was. Nor had Crow forgotten how Glint had seemed to have been wary of him at first. 

Glint still hadn’t told him what those ‘few notable achievements’ were.

He knew Ren was a competent guardian. He had seen it first hand. But Crow also remembered when Ren had come to him to hide from his duties. How he’d been choked up at the realization that they were friends. And how Spec had seemed so happy Ren had ‘Made his first friend!’

Ren had to have had other friends before him, right? He was a skilled guardian, and obviously experienced in fighting for what Crow assumed was gained through years of experience. Not to mention he was acquainted with Osiris to some extent and the former exile had been around for quite a few decades at least. 

It was confusing to say the least, he’d even taken to calling it ‘The Ren Paradox’ in his head whenever he thought about it. He knew Ren was more than capable of surviving whatever he was walking into but he just couldn’t help but worry. Crow didn’t want to lose the friend he had just gained.

“What are you thinking so hard about?”

Glint’s voice broke through his thoughts. Crow hadn’t even realized he’d zoned out that much.

“Crow?”

“Ren.” He admitted. “I’m worried about him, and Spec.”

Glint gently bumped against Crow’s cheek. “They’ll be alright. Nothing’s stopped them yet!”

Well, if Glint was going to give him an opening…

“Oh really? Because you and I have both seen them faceplant after tripping on Baron Spider’s rugs.” Crow asked, voice as dry as the dust on the Shore.

Even though he was trying to fish for information Crow was still glad he managed to make Glint laugh. 

“I’ll admit, they’re a lot different from what I’d been expecting.” His ghost mused. 

“Which was?”

Glint hummed, “I know what you’re trying Crow.”

Crap.

“And Spider does have quite the extensive archive of tapped City records.”

Oh no.

“I think it’d be fun to see if you can find out for yourself!” He finished cheerfully.

“Spider doesn’t leave me much time for personal research projects.” Crow countered.

“Just go off of what you know about them! Or you could ask.” Glint said encouragingly, “They might not even be trying to hide it. It probably hasn’t even occurred to them that you’d be curious.”

Glint was probably right. 

He’d start with that ‘Battle of Twilight Gap’. It sounded like there were a lot of guardians there and surviving that probably counted as a Notable Achievement. Maybe check the Red War or Taken War records too since Ren had mentioned going through both.

*

Three hours later Glint was sent an image of Ren on the surface of Luna, covered in cursed thrall goo but giving a cheerful thumbs up.

Crow probably would have found it a bit more funny if he hadn’t been stuck seeing ‘No Results Found’ on his digital search of Lurien’s name in Spider’s records.

*

Lurien yawned again, his jaw creaking and feeling like a bruise the more he kept doing it. He probably should have gotten some sleep after putting Zulmak down again but he’d been looking forward to giving Crow the cookies he’d baked. He gave Spider a nod of acknowledgement as he ducked down the hallway that led to Crow’s workstation.

He absolutely did not want to give Spider cookies. Eva could give him that disappointed look all she wanted, he wouldn’t cave. Nope. No sir. And he certainly wasn’t avoiding her and her disappointed look. Or her disappointment about Stasis which had made him feel like shriveling up internally.

“I must be heading back to the tower now.”

Osiris?

Lurien almost ran into the former warlock as he was leaving Crow’s small workplace.

“Ren!” Glint called out cheerfully when he caught sight of him. “You made it! Osiris was just teaching us a hive dowsing ritual!”

He sent Crow a curious look and the other lightbearer helped him out. “It’ll help us map out the interdimensional pathways through the Ascendant Plane and track down the High Celebrant.”

“Oh that sounds useful! Maybe you can teach us!” Spec chimed in, his comment drawing a surprised look from Crow before he puffed up with a proud grin and nod.

Osiris paused, “No point in wasting time relearning what you should already know Guardian.” he said dryly.

Lurien and Spec both looked at Osiris. “But, we don’t know it.”

“What.”

Oh dear.

Osiris froze before turning to pin Lurien with a fierce glare. “Explain.”

“We… never learned?” Spec repeated hesitantly.

“How have you not learned something like this?” Osiris demanded, “Especially you?” He pointed an accusatory finger towards Lurien, “How have you been navigating the Ascendant Plane?”

Crow leaned in, his gold eyes wide as he listened with rapt attention. 

Spec and Lurien exchanged glances before giving a shrug, “We kinda just keep going forward while shooting glowy or screaming things.” Spec answered. “Or just jump around till something finds us and we shoot that.”

There was a muffled snicker behind them from Crow.

Osiris looked almost physically pained. “You mean to tell me that you. You. Just… wander aimlessly in the Ascendant Plane?”

Lurien nodded.

“Do you run around shooting everything just to see what happens?!” Osiris’s feathered robes seemed to almost puff up in affronted outrage. 

Lurien nodded again after a moment of deliberation. “We don’t just shoot things” Spec added helpfully, “Sometimes we need to bash it with a hive sword instead!”

Osiris pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m going back to the Tower, and I will be pulling your file. It is clear you have some gaps in your education.”

He… wasn’t sure what to do or what he should even think or feel about that. Hadn’t Osiris already looked at his file? And if this was something he should have learned, wouldn’t it have come up sooner? In the end Lurien numbly stepped aside to let Osiris walk past.

“You never learned stuff like that?”

Glint hovered in front of Lurien, his eye looking him over almost doubtfully. 

Lurien felt his cheeks heat up purple. “...no…” he muttered.

“Weren’t you trained by your mentor?” Crow asked as he stepped closer, a slight grin on his face.

“I never really had a mentor, not a dedicated one anyway.”

“What?”

Well, that’s familiar. 

Lurien yawned again before sitting down on a crate, “Spec found me in the middle of a Fallen raid. I fought out, found a ship, went to the Tower and got sent out to find a warp drive.” He sent Crow a tired grin, “I found one. But it was only after I made it back to the Tower did I learn that the Eliksni I fought to get it was an Archon.”

Crow’s eyebrows shot up. 

“Things just… kept happening after that.” Spec added. “Before we knew it we were being sent out on high stakes missions and I guess stuff like hive dowsing rituals fell through the cracks.”

“You’re self taught?” Crow asked incredulously while Glint muttered, “Well that explains how he teaches.”

Lurien could feel himself turning a deep shade of purple. In his defence he had tried reading as many ‘How to Teach’ books as he could when he had time. Coming up short on what to say he pulled a small tin full of biscotti from his pack before holding it out for Crow to take.

From Crow’s befuddled look Lurien probably should have explained before handing the gift out. Luckily Spec came to his rescue.

“Oh you’re giving them now?” He turned to Crow and Glint, “Happy Dawning you two! I hope they're edible, Ren’s not the best cook.”

So much for ‘rescue’, more like throwing him under the Cabal drop-pod. Lurien gave his ghost a glare that was easily ignored.

Crow slowly reached for the tin before cracking it open to reveal multiple biscotti, some a little burnt, some a bit dry and crumbly but Lurien could admit he’d given them his best effort. 

“Cookies!” Glint whispered excitedly. “Thank you! And happy Dawning to you two as well!”

Closing the lid, Crow tucked the tin away under his cloak and sat down next to Lurien.

The hug caught Lurien by surprise.

This one was longer than the one they’d shared by that campfire. And it felt... soft. Lurien felt himself stiffen from the surprise at the contact before he heard Crow’s voice by his ear. “Thank you. Truly.”

When he pulled away Crow gave a soft snort, “You look so surprised.”

Lurien dropped his head into his hands and sighed. But as he peeked between his fingers to see Crow’s soft smile he leaned over to bump their shoulders together.


	7. Ripples

Lurien could feel frost in his blood.

“If we don’t find the High Celebrant soon…” Crow trailed off, a quiet dread edging his words but Lurien closed his eyes and strained to keep his breathing even and quell the chilled rage creeping through his bones from the tips of his fingers to reach for his heart.

It would be so easy to freeze Spider solid, stop him. Shatter him till there was nothing left but dust-

With a full body shudder Lurien let go. The chill of Stasis lingered, trying to stay, biting and burning the tips of his fingers like real frost. He was mad, furious even, but he couldn’t let it take over. Crow needed his help and support more than he needed Lurien to run off and commit icy murder. 

“We have to work harder.”

Opening his eyes as he let his breath out Lurien reached out and pulled out his data pad and typed up a quick message and sent it to Commander Zavala.

The reply was almost immediate. And while it had questions and a request for a call later to fully explain himself it was still an approval of his request. 

Lurien reached out and placed his hand on Crow’s shoulder “You’ll have us for the whole week.”

Crow’s eyes widened. “Won’t the Vanguard need you though?”

“We have a lot of built up vacation time.” Spec chimed in, “We can skip a week of Vanguard missions. We want to help.” Lurien gave a very firm nod in agreement.

Glint hovered in the back as he stared at Lurien and Crow. Turning his attention to the purple ghost Lurien softly cleared his throat before speaking up, “We’ll do everything we can. Just let us know what you need us to do.”

Glint’s eye flashed as he got Lurien’s message.

*

Zavala sighed as he reread the message he had gotten from one Guardian in particular. 

This was the second time he asked for his schedule to be cleared without much warning within the last two months. 

“Commander, I am requesting the next 7 days off from Vanguard Operations. A friend needs help but if any Vanguard influence is noted in the area his situation might worsen. The friend is not Drifter. It has nothing to do with Europa or Stasis. Osiris is working with us on the issue, feel free to ask him for more details.”

A gloved hand reached over his shoulder to grab the data pad with the message still displayed.

“I wonder if this is related to those books he checked out recently.” Ikora mused with a grin.

“He’s up to something.” Zavala stated flatly.

“Yes, with ‘How to Teach for Dummies’, ‘Help! A Kinderguardian Keeps Following Me!’ and ‘An Introduction to Channeling Light: Hunter Edition’ in his archive access history it must be something concerning.” Ikora said with a laugh, and even Zavala couldn’t hide a small grin of his own thinking of the Guardian reading that collection of books. “Even Osiris seems to be in a… teaching mood. I had thought he was just feeling nostalgic about being back in the Tower but with this..” She trailed off with a gesture at the data pad.

Sighing once again Zavala leaned back in his chair. “The Guardian’s Ghost did say they were working with an associate of Spider, called them a friend when I got a hold of him after they investigated the Deep Stone Crypt. What are the odds it’s a New Light that got caught in Spider’s web?”

Ikora’s flat look conveyed exactly what she thought of the odds.

“I think we should let them handle it for now.” She said, “Whatever is going on this New Light seems to be good for our Guardian. Did you know I saw him dancing with his Ghost at the Bazaar?”

Zavala blinked in surprise, he didn’t remember the last time he’d seen that Guardian do something so frivolous since Cayde-6 had died. Even before then it had taken a lot of goading on Cayde’s end to get them to do something like that- in public at least.

“He even threw a snowball at Osiris.” Ikora chuckled, “I almost thought I had mistaken him for someone else when I saw him throw the snowball and run.”

That was… also unexpected. 

The mental image of the serious and silent Guardian with him sneaking up to throw a snowball at Osiris of all people was absurd. Eva had quite often come to him with worries and complaints about how that Guardian would come to her for holiday tasks and fulfill them with the same dedication as he did Strike operations. To hear about him acting like a kinderguardian…

Zavala’s eyes fell back on the data pad still in Ikora’s hands. 

How old was their Guardian again?

“I’ll approve it.” 

Ikora gave him a look of faint surprise.

“I trust him. I also trust he’ll figure whatever this is out.” Zavala took the data pad back, “In the meantime, it seems like our Guardian has given us a lead on who to ask for more details even if his hands seem to be tied on the matter.” 

From Ikora’s answering grin Zavala was glad he wasn’t in Osiris’ shoes. 

*

Lurien held on to his sword’s hilt tighter, trying to still the trembling in his arms. Three days straight of Hunts and charging the Lure to continue Hunting. Sometimes he’d had to go alone, Crow being called away on another of Spider’s tasks. Other times he’d see Crow flagging a little at the relentless pace Lurien had set and the older Lightbearer had tried to either encourage Crow to take a break or ask him to help from a bit further back. 

Crow was never happy with him when he tried though, and only tried to stubbornly stick with him. 

Crow had also been quite cross with Lurien when he found out the latter had burned down the Shore’s Hive Broodhold alone to charge up the Lure while he was on a task. But doing so without a Vanguard team had saved Spider quite a bit of glimmer- a favor Lurien had exchanged for more time to search for the High Celebrant- along with conveniently charging up the Lure for another round of Hunts.

Presently Crow was sliding down from the sniper’s perch he had roosted in- Lurien held back a tired snicker at the accidental bird pun- and walked up to him with a frown as he looked Lurien over. 

“Stop. Doing. That.”

Lurien blinked tiredly as the Well of Radiance flickered out around them. The fallen bodies of Wrathborn still littering the cave. 

“I could hear your bones breaking and fixing themselves with that Servitor’s pressure blasts.” Crow … scolded? Was Crow scolding him? “Just because that Well of yours can heal you doesn’t mean you should just stand there and take it to keep doing damage.”

He remembered dark tunnels lined with festered gold, cold white bridges, towers glowing above red sand. He remembered claws digging into flesh that healed before they even finished tearing through, fire that burned and licked at the same spot over and over, holes that would open and immediately close. Lurien remembered trusting his Light to keep him standing through so much.

Zulmak roared as the fire burned, burned, burned but he kept fighting back over and over and over.

“Ren?”

Lurien nodded, he was here. Swinging Lament onto his back once more Lurien looked at his stock of Lure charges.

Empty again.

“No.” Crow’s hands covered Lurien’s and gently pried the Lure from them. “You need to take a break.”

But Lurien was fine. He could keep going, he wasn’t going to collapse just yet. Lurien was quite aware of his limits. He opened his mouth to say so but, nothing came out. What would he even say? What should he say? Anything Lurien tried just got caught in his throat. 

Crow’s voice softened. “You’re going quiet again.” His gold eyes looked straight through Lurien’s visor, flickering as if looking for something. “And if you keep pushing me to stay back and snipe I won’t be able to swoop in and save you like I had to do with Osiris.”

A faint bubble of amusement flickered through Lurien. He wanted to laugh but was just too tired to even chuckle. All Crow got was a quiet huff which only made him pull the Lure even further away from Lurien’s hands. 

“Spec? Where’s your ship docked? And when was the last time he slept?” Oh, so now he was talking like Lurien wasn’t even there.

“I’m bringing it around.” Spec said, “And he has gotten about sixteen hours in the last three days.”

“What!” Crow nearly hissed, “Sixteen?”

“Honestly that’s more than he usually has when he gets like this.” Spec sighed.

“You should take better care of your Guardian.” Glint tisked, hovering around Lurien as he rolled his eyes while Crow started to physically push the older Lightbearer out of the cave they had fought the Wrathborn in. 

“I would if he’d let me.” Spec grumbled. “Most of the time when he gets like this we don’t get the option to stop and rest which only encourages this habit of his.”

Lurien crossed his arms, he wasn’t that bad. Was he?

Crow sighed, “Just who are you Ren? What made you like this?”

He went still. Old questions returning to the front of his mind ‘Don’t you recognise us?’ ‘Why do you fight?’ questions he was still trying to answer. Spec gave him a concerned glance before answering, “We… we can’t tell you yet. Spider doesn’t want you finding out who your past life was and…” he hesitated.

“I didn’t, do anything to you did I?” Crow asked carefully, a hand coming up to pull his hood even lower over his face.

Despite the weight in his limbs and the exhaustion that tugged at him Lurien snapped back to full awareness at that question. Turning to face Crow directly he tried to voice assurances but when nothing came out he reached out slowly and deliberately pushed Crow’s hood down.

Crow’s unobstructed look of surprise made his heart ache as Lurien pulled him into a tight hug. 

“Well, I suppose that answers the question then?” Glint asked nervously.

“We crossed paths with your past life.” Spec explained carefully, “Ren and I both agreed to keep our past quiet until you’re free from Spider because you’re definitely smart enough to look us up and find out who you were. We didn’t want to risk that with Spider’s threats.”

Lurien could feel Crow take a shaky breath so he tightened his grip. 

“Ah, I did encourage Crow to try to look you two up. He was curious and I thought you two didn’t realize you hadn’t said anything.” Glint said. “He started by looking through the Battle of Six Fronts for a reference to you guys after a name search pulled up nothing.” 

The amount of muffled amusement in that second sentence was contagious enough to get Lurien snorting a laugh. Pulling back he saw Crow giving him a sheepish grin under slightly wet eyes so Lurien ruffled his hair a bit and grinned at the resulting squawk. 

“We’ll tell you everything you want to know once Glint’s safe.” Spec assured, “Even down to the number of times Ren muttered ‘Fuck!’ when he was running around trying not to get hit by this really big sword.”

Lurien glared at his tattle-tale Ghost, giving him a light poke.

“Okay, maybe I was the one screaming profanities while he was just internally screaming.”

That was more accurate. And it was quite convenient for Spec that Crow’s laughter was cut off when the four of them were transmatted onto Lurien’s ship.

Although Spec, Crow and Glint all ganging up on him to force Lurien into taking a nap was completely uncalled for. If asked he did not fall asleep as soon as he curled up on his cramped mattress he had shoved behind his cockpit. Nor did he have any books of suspiciously specific names that Crow teased him about. They were not his. Nope.

*

Elsie stared out at the Pyramid still looming over the horizon of Europa. 

So many things stayed the same.

But so too were there many differences.

Small changes. The flaps of a butterfly’s wings.

In her original timeline she hadn’t given much thought to that nameless Guardian who had turned Dark like so many others. She had thought that setting his doppelganger on the path she did would result in changes…

But she never expected him to introduce himself by name in a quiet voice over the comms when she told him to call her by name. And if that had surprised her it didn’t compare to the shock she received when he came to ask her for advice.

Not about Stasis.

Advice on what it was like being a sibling. An older sibling. 

She warned him that she didn’t remember much of being Ana’s sister. That the reboots and becoming an exo had taken much. Yet he persisted, his little light saying that she- She!- was the best example they had. So she told them. 

Elsie hadn’t realized how, freeing it was to talk about her relationship with her sister. Not just the worries or the fears which he already knew about, but how they’d tease each other, or share jokes between the two of them. How it felt to want to support someone through anything, how it felt to see that reflected back. 

Funny how such a small question and its implications could lead to so much. 

In her timeline that nameless Dark Guardian had died alone.

She couldn’t wait to see the difference.

To see the hurricane that came from the butterfly.


	8. Coup De Grace (Part 1)

With dead scorn and puddles of taken residue behind him Lurien gazed up at the temple before him. The crystalline structure towering over the Rheasilvan mists as the taken influences still lingered in the air, he never would have guessed that the High Celebrant would have been tracked here. Lurien honestly would have bet on somewhere with a lot more death, or Luna, he’d have put glimmer down for Luna.

Spec got on the comms, his optic glowing as he connected, “Crow? Are you there?” he asked while Lurien started to jog into the temple.   
  
“Somewhat.” Crow’s voice called out from the speaker in Lurien’s helmet. “I tracked the Celebrant through a portal into swirling darkness.”

Crow went into  _ what?!  _ “Sounds like a gateway to the Ascendant Plane, hadn’t you entered it before when we hunted in the City?” Spec explained.

“As I said: swirling darkness. And no, I studied how the wrathborn moved through it but this is… different.” Lurien inhaled sharply as a spike of worry shot through him. He knew Crow could handle himself but considering his quarry Lurien couldn’t help but hope the communications stayed strong. If it cut out- he stopped that train of thought. “I’m learning its tricks now, studying how it moves through these realms. It’s like a shark cutting through black water.”

“Keep an eye on it.” Spec said, sharing a concerned look with Lurien.

“I can do more than that.”

“And be careful.” Lurien added as he finished off a group of hive between him and the larger antechamber.

No answer. But also no screaming or sounds of a fight, Lurien reminded himself as he cautiously entered the chamber, eyes down the sights of his gun and ears straining for any sound. At first he was alone except for the echoes of his own footsteps, then as he neared the center of the room he caught sight of another Cryptolith. This one was already activated, glowing with the sickly Hive green as the whispers emanating from it grew louder but still incomprehensible as he approached. Lurien gave the area one last look-over before he pulled out the lure he had strapped over his shoulder and jammed it into the Cryptolith’s roots.

It roared to life with a sound akin to screeching metal just as the High Celebrant materialized into existence on this plane. Hive magic oozing from its shoulder where something black was embedded deep in the chitin. 

Lurien could barely hear Crow’s voice over it’s bellows, “Ha! Tagged it! It’s bleeding energy and on its way back to you.”

Yeah, it was ‘on its way’ alright Lurien thought as he dove behind cover and pulled out a sniper. Quickly slapping a magazine in he peeked around and with four loud retorts each round was slammed into the Celebrant’s head. 

“Definitely still has some shielding.” Spec told him. “Knights coming around your right side.”

Lurien gave a nod of acknowledgement as he grabbed another magazine and got to work. Knights first, and fireballs for the Celebrant if bullets weren’t going to do much with its shields. His Light would keep coming back to him but ammo was looking to be in short supply.

“How are you holding up Ren?”

He lobbed another solar grenade at the Celebrant, eliciting an echoing bellow as the smell of burnt chitin only became even more pronounced until with a flash of light it vanished, a small orb of Taken energy floating where it used to stand.

“It fled back into the Ascendant Plane!” Spec exclaimed, “But it left something behind.”

“Told you I tagged it.” Lurien could almost hear a smug grin in Crow’s voice. And despite his worry over his friend given his current location Lurien had a grin of his own just hearing it. It was nice noticing the small ways Crow was opening up. “That’s residual energy. A blood trail. Destroy it, and the essence in your lure should reopen the portal.”

Well, that was a nice change to his usual tactics. Lurien gave his weapons one quick check over and picked the lure back up before blasting open the orb and leaping into the Ascendant Plane.

“The Celebrant seeks to bring more territory under Xivu Arath’s control.” Osiris mused over the comms. Lurien was wondering when he’d join in. “Be quick. She will not be pleased with trespassers…”

Were the hive  _ ever _ pleased with trespassers? Lurien decided to keep his snark to himself since he knew the answer to that question as he followed the ‘blood trail’ Crow has so kindly created for him across the broken pathways of the Ascendant Realm. 

“This tag of yours is great Crow!” Spec praised. “We can see the path the Celebrant took through the Realm.”

“Better than your usual methods?” Crow asked, as if he didn’t know already given the restrained amusement Lurien could hear in his words. Although he had to wonder, was Crow’s sarcasm rubbing off on him or the other way around?

“Immensely.” Spec teased while Lurien jumped through another portal. “We made it back to the Dreaming City. No sign of the Celebrant. Crow, where are you?”

The serious tone returned, “At your coordinates, walking the other side of the same coin. The way I see it, as long as we’re in both planes, it has nowhere to hide.”

That made sense. Although it still didn’t help Lurien’s nerves that he hadn’t seen Crow since the start of this hunt. Funny how quickly he’d gotten used to fighting alongside his friend that he felt Crow’s absence so keenly.

A flash of green drew his attention along with more loud yelling. “Celebrant sighted!”

No, really Spec? Lurien was sure even Zavala could hear the damn thing all the way back on Earth. 

“Do your thing Ren.” 

“Working on it.” Lurien threw another volley of fireballs at the Celebrant before diving for cover. By the time he finished off the lesser wrathborn it had emerged that he noticed that neither his Light nor his bullets were doing much damage to it’s shield.

Wonderful. Hive magic shield bullshit. 

“This isn’t working.” Spec called out as Lurien ducked behind a low wall as the Celebrant sent blasts of arc energy in his direction. “We can’t truly damage the Celebrant without reclaimed Light!”

Wait, was that what the hive magic residue stuff was? It had an actual label?

“Hold tight. I’m on it!”

Right in front of him another rift to the Ascendant Plane ripped open to let out glowing wrathborn. Lurien quickly finished the group off with his sword before standing on the residual energy and unloading as many bullets as he could into the Celebrant.    
  
Glint chimed in, “We’ve flushed them out of the Ascendant Plane and into the open.”

“I just shot them until they ran,” Crow added, “but I like the way you put it better.”

That was one of his usual tactics! Oh, Lurien was  _ so proud. _ Osiris groaned as if physically pained after Crow’s statement but Lurien had a wide and toothy grin stubbornly stuck on his face even with swarms of screaming wrathborn trying to kill him. 

“You are a terrible influence Guardian.” 

No he was not! Lurien threw another grenade at the Celebrant, “And you influenced us, so in the end whose fault is it?” Spec replied in a very dry tone.

Osiris huffed audibly as the Celebrant retreated into the Ascendant Realm yet again. And once more Lurien gave chase following Crow’s trail. 

“I did  _ not  _ influence your guardian.” Osiris retorted petulantly. 

“He’s wearing feathers, Osiris.” Spec deadpanned and Lurien paused to stare at his Sunbracers that did indeed have feathers on the ornament he was currently using while Crow started to snicker.

In his defence he only used it so they’d glow blue. 

“Anyway, it is fascinating that you can enter this plane using nothing but dead essences.” Osiris said, changing the subject with all the subtlety of a hive ogre. “Xivu Arath strikes where Savathun first pushed through the veil and entered the Dreaming City. Has she no ambition of her own?”

Didn’t Eris always say that Savathun valued cunning? And if Xivu Arath was the war god of the Hive then what was stopping them from being in cahoots? Lurien made a mental note to ask Eris about it next time he saw her, her counsel on Hive matters was always useful.

Quickly gliding over more floating debris Lurien jumped through another portal and immediately spotted the Celebrant waiting for him. Hopefully this time the damned thing would stay put.

Readying his gun Lurien met it head on. 

Wrathborn swarmed around him and the Celebrant, and Lurien alternated between focusing on them and using them to bypass its shields and continue damaging the Celebrant. Just as its chitin was starting to darken from Lurien’s Light it slammed down a fist and threw him back with a wave of energy. 

When he clambered back to his feet the Celebrant flared with a beam of hive magic so bright Lurien had to look away. When he next glanced back at where it once was there now stood a massive ogre, its bulbous head glowing ominously as it thundered towards him. “It stopped bleeding energy.” Spec reported, “We can’t get back through.”

“I think the Celebrant realized we marked it.” Glint’s voice was getting thicker with static. “It sealed the portal behind itself.”

“We’re trap-?” Crow asked, voice incredulous before static overwhelmed the feed and then fell silent with a click.

Lurien froze. 

No.

“Crow?” Spec asked, “Crow? Glint? Can either of you read me?”

The comms were silent.


	9. Coup De Grace (Part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I admit, I had both of these written up. Didn’t want to leave you all on a cliffhanger for too long 😉

No. 

No, no, no.

The ogre roared, drawing Lurien’s attention from the fear that pierced him through. Lashing out with one arm he incinerated an acolyte and then focused his Light on ogre, throwing grenade after grenade to reduce it to nothing but ash. This was not the time for ogres or hive or any other damn wrathborn.

“Crow? Glint?” Spec tried again, as the ogre fell over dead, “Can either of you pick up?”

“Crow?!” Silence. “Glint?!”

“If your companions are trapped in the Ascendant Plane with the Celebrant,” Osiris stated quietly, “Then they are already-”

No.

“Osiris?” Lurien interrupted. “Shut. Up.”

He knew this part of the Dreaming City. He’d been here before. Lurien twirled around, looking up before his gaze settled on the top of the techeun statue. 

Bingo.

“Spec, transmat me some Queensfoil. Two bottles.” They appeared in his outstretched hand with a flash. 

“Maybe there’s enough Hive magic left in the lure to activate some other way through.” Spec mused, appearing beside him and scanning the lure as Lurien took a mod flask off and filled it up with one bottle of Queensfoil. 

“There’s a portal here, it’s not the right phase of the Curse but if the veil between this plane and the Ascendent Realm is thin enough.” He added, partially for Spec and mostly for Osiris’ benefit before pulling off the top of the second vial of Queensfoil and drinking it all in one go.

It slid down his throat with a tingling chill just like it always had.

Walking up to the dead ogre Lurien grabbed the lure and forcefully stabbed it into the body with a sickening squelch. It whined and gurgled, an off-colored fog oozing upwards as it worked and to Lurien’s eyes the space above the statue lost its color.

He didn’t know what else he could do. This  _ had _ to work.

Just then their comms crackled back to life, “-hope you-” static “-hear this.” Crow’s voice was faint, garbled with interference but he could still make it out.

“The Celebrant turned it around on us-” Lurien ignored the jolt of terror he felt at those words and looked around, spotting floating slabs of crystal that were more in the next realm than this one but physical to him now under the Queensfoil’s influence. 

“The hunter becomes the hunted.” Not if Lurien had anything to say about it he thought darkly as he climbed up the platforms.

“I wanted to… Listen, if things get ugly for us in here, just know it’s not your fault.” Lurien could see Cayde, could hear the Hunter Vanguard wheezing that none of what happened was on him. He could almost smell the smoke and dark ether as if he was pulled back in time to that moment. Lurien’s distraction nearly caused him to overshoot the next jump, heart pounding in his throat and blood roaring in his ears.

Funny how now that he wanted so  _ desperately _ to reach his friend Lurien couldn’t feel the chill of Stasis. Instead he felt only the chill of his own fear, his own dread, his own nightmares and regrets clouding his mind. Was the difference because there was nothing to kill? 

Crow’s voice shook, “Everything I did, I did because I wanted to. Thank you. For letting me have a choice.”

_ “Everything I did, I did for her!” _

Crow didn’t deserve this. He did not deserve to be hated for what Uldren did, he did not deserve to be outcast, stripped of opportunities, taken advantage of. He had grown so much, opened up and had only just started to  _ hope _ . 

Lurien came to a stop just before where the portal should be. A monochrome membrane stretched out before him, taunt and solid.

He reached out a hand alight with solar Light and the half-present portal turned to smoke before reforming as Lurien withdrew.

Lurien’s eyes narrowed to slits.

He would  _ not  _ abandon Crow. No matter what.

Hoarfrost spread across his hands as Lurien drew on his inner Darkness. It felt almost reluctant to answer his call after Lurien had ignored it so many times but he was not asking. He was demanding. This part of him belonged to  _ him,  _ not the other way around. Clapping his hands together Lurien focused on drawing forth his Shadebinder staff. The bone-deep chill of Stasis crept up his arms as the dark ice solidified into a wicked weapon in the space between his parting hands. 

In seconds he had the staff formed.

In less than that he raised it up, the jagged edges facing towards where the portal should be.

If the hive’s Sword Logic was built upon the Darkness itself, then he’d use the Darkness to  _ cut his way back in. _

Lurien thrust the staff down, the edges of Stasis catching, dragging and shredding apart the membrane and tearing open a portal to the Ascendant Realm. 

He didn’t hesitate one moment before throwing himself inside.

“Crow, we’re in the Ascendant Plane!” Spec called onto the comms, voice tense with worry, “Do you read us?”

The comms crackled with gunfire, “Ren?”

He was still alive. 

“Crow, where are you?” Lurien called back before directing his next words to Spec, “Can you track their signal?”

“Already on it.” Spec reported, “Uploading to your visor.”

Lurien could hear more gunshots and screams of wrathborn over the comms as he raced after the tracker Spec had placed on his visor’s overlay.

“Glint and I are fine.” There was a pause and a muttered curse, “Nothing in here I can’t handle.” 

Crow finally came into sight. His bright red pants vibrant enough to stand out even with the Ascendant Plane desaturating most colors. But the swarm of wrathborn behind him was also visible.

“What are you talking about?” Glint asked, “The Celebrant broke your legs and threw you into an abyss!”

Lurien reached for his Light even with Stasis still frosting his fingers. He tried to avoid pushing himself to rapidly switch between the two after the forced usage of Stasis when near the Conduits on Europa would leave him with bone-deep aches and shivers for hours. It burned. It burned like cold-numbed hands into steaming hot water, but Lurien wasn’t going to let a little pain stop him as he sent solar Light coursing through his body at such intensity it erupted from his back in a spread of flaming wings as he gripped a molten Dawnblade with an iron grip. 

Kicking off the last platform Lurien threw himself across the abyss, solar Light trailing behind him like a comet before he crashed down right in the middle of the swarm, Dawnblade spearing one of the wrathborn down before it disintegrated. Tearing the blade from the stone ground he swung it in a searing arc at the closest wrathborn. The two halves turned to ash before they even hit the ground as Lurien kept moving without hesitation. His Dawnblade streaked liquid fire as it incinerated one wrathborn after another before gathering the rest of his active Light and sending a wave of fire roaring out.

All Lurien could hear was his own ragged breathing as his Light faded. His whole body felt sore, pins and needles prickling everywhere and the tips of his fingers almost completely numb. He had definitely pushed himself too much but turning around to see Crow emerge from behind a broken pillar Lurien couldn’t find it in him to regret anything.

“Like I said, nothing I couldn’t han-” Lurien closed the distance between them in two gliding half-steps and grabbed Crow in a tight hug. One hand clumsily grabbing a fistful of his cape while the other held on to the back of his helmet when they clacked together “-OOF!”

“I take it you actually could hear me earlier?” Crow asked quietly, arms hanging awkwardly at his sides.

Lurien blinked away the burning in his eyes as he gave Crow another squeeze. He opened and closed his mouth, jaw working but nothing able to come out. Please don’t scare me like that again he wanted to say. I’m so glad you’re safe. Words jumbling and crashing together. After a brief pause Lurien felt Crow wrap his arms around him and give him a quick hug back, his ribs twinged in protest but Crow couldn’t have known and Lurien didn’t give a damn. He was too relieved his friend was alright.

Lurien pulled away reluctantly, this wasn’t the time or place for a long emotional moment, but he left a hand on Crow’s shoulder.

“Right. Well.” Crow awkwardly reached for the hood that wasn’t there as his fingers met his helmet instead. “The High Celebrant’s just up ahead, and I think I have a plan.” he said. “Where’s the portal you came in through?”

“Wait, you’re leaving already?” Spec asked as he appeared with a flash of light. “But you’re like, at least 62.1% of our success rate!”

Crow ducked his head, “Trust me on this, I have a plan.” He pleaded, “Like Osiris said, the Celebrant  _ must  _ die in the Ascendant Plane, and you’re our best shot at making that happen.”

Lurien jumped when Osiris flatly stated, “He’s leaving.”

“Look, I survived by watching the world around me and learning from my Light.” Crow said. “This plan will work, I’ve studied how that thing creates those portals. This time, I’ll be ready I swear.”

“Crow.” Lurien said seriously, and waited till he looked up at him. “The portal is past that way, Spec can send Glint the exact coordinates.” He pointed out where it was visible from their location before looking directly at the younger lightbearer’s visor. “I trust you. Just tell me what you need me to do.”

His words seemed to sink in before Crow straightened up and nodded. 

“Buy us time. Keep it busy till I can give you the signal.” He said firmly.

Lurien gave Crow a firm nod, and a thumbs up to go with it.

“Be careful yourself Ren.” Crow said as he turned to leave, “And, thank you.” 

Lurien took a deep breath, letting the last of his worry and fear wash away in a heady wave of relief. He’d made it in time. He wasn’t too late.  _ He wasn’t too late. _ A soft, choked laugh made its way out of him.

“Ren?” Spec asked. 

“I’m okay.” He assured, gently taking Spec into his hand and directing him towards his pouch. “Let’s finish this.”

He met the Celebrant in a cracked rotunda. A broken crystal hovering above as it roared, tearing open portals to summon wrathborn. 

His Light was depleted, ammo reserves just under half and still sore all over from burning Stasis out of his system. 

Lurien grinned darkly behind his helm as he took Lament off his back and changed to a ready stance. 

He’d managed with worse odds. 

For Sagira. For Osiris. For Crow.

Lurien lunged into the fray, tearing through the wrathborn. He had to keep their numbers down before they overran him, while also keeping the Celebrant’s attention but not scare it off. 

“Are you keeping it busy?” Crow asked, “I’m nearly at the portal where you came in.”

“It’s busy.” Spec replied as Lurien dodged a wrathborn vandal’s shock-spear. 

“Just a little longer.”

Drawing up what Light he’d managed to recover, Lurien summoned a rift at his feet, letting it wash over him as he braced himself to keep fighting. At least he’d managed to scavenge some ammo from the wrathborn. 

“Heads up! Energy readings are spiking. It’s going to create another portal.” Spec called out.

“I’m in position on the other side.” Crow replied. “You’re smoking it out, Ren, but if I block the exit- it burns.”

The crystal above pulsed a sickly light as the space behind the Celebrant began to glow.

“Crow! The portal!”

“I see it.”

Suddenly the crystal flared bright, summoning a cage of hive magic around Lurien that pinned him in place with crushing pressure. Before him the Celebrant rumbled a deep and sinister chuckle as it summoned a portal with the sweep of a hand. But as the portal stabilized it opened to reveal Crow standing at the ready.

A Golden Gun glowing incandescently in his hands.

With a deafening crack his first shot scorched through the Celebrant’s shoulder. The second in it’s chest, then another, another, and another. Six blasts of condensed Light pushed the Celebrant back, blackening and splintering its chitin, tearing its weapon from its hand and forcing it to fall to its knees.

“Now, finish it!” Crow yelled out as the cage around Lurien faded to nothingness.

Landing on his feet Lurien raced forward, revving up Lament as he went. The Celebrant raised its head to stare at him just as Lurien brought his blade down in one fell swoop.

And the head rolled.

“The High Celebrant of Xivu Arath is no more.” Osiris marveled. “How did you manage that?”

Seriously? He was on the comms the entire time. How did he not-?

“I used a sword.” Lurien deadpanned tiredly. “It went swish, swish.”

He could hear Crow attempt to smother a laugh while a dull thud came from Osiris’ end. 

“Crow destroyed its portal from the other side when it tried to escape.” Spec marveled, “I knew he wouldn’t really leave us.”

Lurien’s mouth quirked a small grin. That was certainly an ‘I told you so’ to Osiris if he’d ever heard one.

“Nooooo.” Crow drawled out over the comms, “Never.”

He couldn’t see it, but Lurien just knew Crow had an absolute shit-eating grin on his face. The mental image alone had him laughing out loud.

“Oh, and bring its head on your way back out, would you?” Crow asked, “Spider will want proof when you come to collect.”

There was a heavy pause on his end, and then, “It’s been an honor, Lurien.”

“The honor was ours.” Spec said warmly. “None of this would have been possible without you Crow.”

  
  
  



	10. Coup De Grace (Part 3)

Lurien practically collapsed into his ship’s cockpit after finally managing to clamber into it. Spec appeared and scanned him worriedly until he was waved off.

“Ren.” Spec said in a warning tone.

“Later.” He stressed before Crow popped up with the engram containing the Celebrant’s head tucked under an arm. Lurien gave his ghost a pleading look.

“Fine.” Spec whispered, “But if you don’t take a break after all this…” he trailed off threateningly before flying away to help Crow and Glint settle into the ship’s cramped living space for the trip back to the Shore.

Lurien slumped with a sigh. Spec wasn’t wrong, but he just needed to keep going for just a little longer.

“Are you alright?”

Lurien jumped in his seat at Crow’s voice, causing him to hit his head on a nearby bar. He brought up a hand to rub the new bump as he muttered a curse, he didn’t need another bruise on top of his still sore body from pushing his use of Light so soon after channeling Stasis. Glancing up he saw Crow looking at him with an unreadable expression, his own helmet also gone and no longer staring blankly at that engram like he had been since Lurien asked him to hold on to it.

“I’m fine.” Lurien told him, ignoring a scoff from Spec that Crow definitely caught.

Crow’s visible eye narrowed.

Lurien’s shoulders slumped, “Give me like, three hours. Then you and Spec can force me to take a nap.”

He expected Crow to at least give a huff of a laugh at that, or even an eye roll but instead Crow just sank deeper into his hood before giving Lurien a long stare. He tilted his head, silently asking what was wrong but Crow’s expression only seemed to grow more withdrawn. 

“Crow?”

“It’s nothing.”

Oh Lurien highly doubted that. He rubbed his jaw as he turned the events of the Celebrant hunt over in his head, trying to find what could be bothering his friend. 

“Crow?” He tried again, “I don’t doubt that you could handle things in the Ascendant Plane. I just- I panicked when the comms cut out.” Lurien trailed off, ‘ _Operation Caliban, can you hear me?_ ’ “And I’ve been sent on too many missions to follow last-known coordinates that ended… poorly.” _‘I watched a wizard rip the Light outta my best friend’ ‘You were a good friend, Saint. Goodbye.’ ‘Listen, kid. This… this ain't on you. This… is what I get for… for playing nice.’_ “I didn’t- I didn’t want that to happen again.” Lurien knew he probably wasn’t making much sense, but he wanted to reassure his friend.

Crow remained silent and Lurien worried that he might have misspoke. “-What I’m trying to say is that I don’t doubt your capabilities I just- anything could happen and I just- I worry a lot and panicked when we finally could hear you and-”

“Ren.” Crow cut his rambling words off. “It- It’s not that.”

Lurien blinked blankly, “Oh.”

“But thank you.” He added, tacking on a small barely-there smile before he got up from looking over the cockpit and disappeared back into the deeper part of the ship.

Oh he fucked up didn’t he? Lurien dropped his head into his hands, fingers pressing against the sides to try and alleviate his headache. Letting out a sigh Lurien focused back on his ship controls. First things first, they had to get the Celebrant’s head back to Spider. Then hopefully the mad scheme he’d cooked up seconds after Spider’s promised reward would actually work. 

He really hoped it would work.

As he directed the ship into orbit he could hear Spec speaking up.

“Is something wrong Crow? You’ve been quiet.”

He loved his ghost. Hopefully Spec could help more than Lurien could. 

I’m fine.” Crow stated, “It’s just a bit difficult to realize that this hunt is over.” His voice dropped to a low whisper, “It’s all over.”

“Ren?”

Lurien looked away from the window in front of him to see Glint floating nearby, eye focused on him. He gave the ghost a nod of acknowledgement.

“Are okay? You seem, off.”

It wasn’t that obvious was it? Damn he’d have to make sure Spider couldn’t see if that’s the case. Or was it just Spec conniving with Glint to make him take a break? Wait, were both he and Crow unintentionally sending their ghosts to check up on the other? Or were both ghosts doing it because they knew their guardians probably wouldn’t talk about what was bothering them to each other?

“I’ll be fine. I just pushed myself making that portal.” He admitted.

Glint’s eye gleamed, “I knew something was strange with that one! It was really cold, Crow’s teeth started chattering after we jumped through it!”

Fuck.

Deciding this was as good a time as any Lurien changed the subject.

“Speaking of, is something bothering Crow?”

The back of Glint’s shell twirled, “You do know Spider will probably reassign us after this, right?”

Lurien blinked, what did that- oh. OH!

“Well,” He trailed off before dropping his voice to a whisper, “I don’t know if this will work but, Spider promised me my pick of anything in his lair if we killed the Celebrant.”

“Well I wouldn’t recommend anything on open display, most are fake. Although, there was this one Golden Age device named after a fruit and-”

Lurien cut him off, “ _Anything_.” he stressed.

He could see the exact moment Glint got what he was hinting at. The ghost’s shell went still before he zipped right up Lurien’s face. “If this works….”

“It’s plan A.”

“Plan B?”

“Asking for that bomb to be out of you, and in my hand.”

“....Plan C?”

“...Murder?”

“REN!”

Lurien cringed when Crow and Spec fell silent at Glint’s outburst. Spec zoomed over, “What did he do now?”

He did not deserve the exasperation added to that question.

“Oh look.” Lurien said flatly, “We’re here.”

“Ren that doesn’t answer the question.”

He held up a finger for Crow to wait, he had to concentrate on landing the ship.

_“Ren.”_

Like ghost, like guardian apparently. 

“Glint? What did Ren do?”

“Nothing. Yet.”

Geeze, no faith.

Taking a deep breath Lurien grabbed the engram with the Celebrant’s head and pressed the button to drop the stairs that led out of his ship. Looking back at Crow he silently asked if his friend was ready.

Crow gave the stairs a morosely resigned look, and if Lurien didn’t already have multiple plans stacked up to try and work this opportunity of a situation to his friend’s favor then- well he didn’t know what he’d do instead. As it was, he still was tempted to wrap Crow up with a bunch of blankets and throw a Nova Bomb right into Spider’s face. Instead of doing that though, he followed Crow down the stairs and towards Spider’s Safehouse. The whole time taking deep breaths, and running what he’d say through his head. He couldn’t mess this up. He couldn’t mess this up.

Before he knew it they were in Spider’s lair. Lurien straightened his back as he stepped out of the shadows of the hallway while Crow moved over to Spider’s side. Opening up the engram with a smooth gesture he’d practiced in private after watching Cayde do it what felt like forever ago he let the Celebrant’s head arc out, land on the floor with a dull thud and roll to a stop right in front of Spider. 

The large Eliksni chuckled darkly.

“It’s done.” Lurien stated flatly, eyes narrowed to slits as he stared up into the lights behind Spider unflinchingly. 

“So it is… so it is.” Spider observed, waving a dreg in to grab the head and carry it off somewhere. He then sat up, “Alright Guardian, as promised you can have a.. Prized bauble from my lair as a reward for your… heroics.”

Lurien ignored the sarcasm that practically dripped off that last word, instead he continued to look right up at Spider, “I want…” only to break and nod his head at Crow, “Him.”

If he was too specific, Spider might find a way to twist the words in his favor. Much like what Lurien was doing now. He held his breath as Spider laughed, eyes glued back onto the Eliksni to keep himself from letting any humor at Crow’s wide-eyed shock show on his face.

“Cute.” Spider said with humor that was quickly turning darker, “Real funny.”

Lurien took a half-step forward, “You said, anything in the room.”

And it was then that he finally let his blank expression fall, a small and sharp smirk emerging on his face. Lurien let just a tiny bit of Stasis loose from the iron grip he’d been shoving it down with every time he had to pass Spider these past few weeks. Not enough for frost or even to make their breath visible, but enough for a faint chill to go through the small room. Barely there, barely noticeable, easily passed off as nothing.

But Spider caught it. Just as Lurien knew he would, and Spider knew what that faint chill meant after he was kind enough to ‘lend aid’ when Lurien had grabbed that grenade launcher for Drifter. 

With a twitch of his hand Spider’s guards lowered their shock spears, but they shuffled nervously, clearly hesitant. Crow’s eyes darted between Lurien and Spider.

“Oh, you really want my little bird?” Spider laughed, but Lurien caught how he wasn’t leaning back in his throne anymore. “Fine, you can have him.”

Yes! Thank the Light! Please, please, please keep working.

Lurien kept as perfectly still as he could, desperately trying not to let his inner excitement show. 

Spider sent Crow a sideways glance, “Fly away….” His eyes then focused back on Lurien, “And get the hell out of my lair.”

And that was it apparently.

Lurien and Crow both walked out of the Safehouse. The whole time Lurien’s thoughts were swinging between wondering if Spider would detonate the bomb out of spite and assuring himself that at the very least they had until Spider squirreled himself away in another safehouse away from Lurien to even consider it. Apparently Crow was dazed by what happened as well considering that when Lurien’s foot caught on a loose cable he didn’t react at all. Which was fair, Lurien supposed, since he was so out of it himself he’d tripped in the first place.

“I can’t believe that worked.” Lurien blurted out when Crow turned to look at him as they emerged to the open Shore.

Crow gaped, “You-? You planned that?!”

“Less a plan, more the letter ‘P’ scratched into the dirt.” Spec stated dryly, which caused Lurien to give his ghost a pout.

“What do we do now though?” Glint asked.

Crow blinked, “I… I don’t know. This doesn’t feel real.” he paused and then whispered, “Freedom…”

Lurien’s headache, body aches and exhaustion all said it was very real but he was trying to keep Crow from noticing those. And he wanted to give Crow the chance to process what happened so being snarky probably wouldn’t help. He’d already messed up trying to reassure Crow once today, and Lurien really didn’t want to go for two in a row.

“Why would you do this for us?” Crow asked as he turned back to face Lurien.

There were so many ways he could answer that. But Lurien remembered Spider’s admonishments about how he treated Crow before they left to hunt the Celebrant. “Because you didn’t deserve to be treated like that. Because you’re my friend. And most importantly-” He gave Crow a lopsided grin, “-because you’re a Guardian.”

The hug caught him completely by surprise. Lurien could barely hear Spec bemoaning his social skills and how cheesy that was as Crow reached out and pulled him into a tight hug. It didn’t last long though, as the surprise meant he didn’t brace himself in time and a pained hiss escaped him.

“You’re hurt?” Yellow eyes darted over to Spec, “Did the Celebrant-?”

“No he did it to himself. Idiot pushed himself too much, ripping open that portal and then summoning that Dawnblade back to back.” Spec stated. “He’ll be fine once he actually. Gets. Some. Rest!”

The concern in Crow’s expression was mostly replaced with exasperation, “Ren.”

He definitely picked up that tone from Spec. 

“Why haven’t you healed yourself yet?” He fussed, calling up a small orb of Light. “How bad? And be honest.”

Lurien did not deserve that last bit. But he couldn’t help the small bubble of pride he felt every time Crow called on his Light to heal. Lurien wasn’t a good teacher but he did manage to teach his friend that. 

“My Light’s taking a bit longer to recover than it usually does.” He admitted, “And my bones feel sunburnt.”

Crow blinked, “What did you do?”

Lurien and Spec exchanged glances, “I uh- channeled Darkness to open up that portal then burned it out of my system to summon the Dawnblade.”

“You what?”

“He used Darkness to summon an Ice Staff to rip open a weakness between the physical realm and the Ascendant Plane.” Spec summed up. “It’s a loooong story but the gist of it is that Eramis tried to build an army of Darkness-wielding Fallen, we had to use Darkness to stop them. An acquaintance of ours admitted she can time-travel and Clovis Bray is a bastard. I can give you more details later.”

Crow opened his mouth and then closed it. Then opened again. And closed it. Lurien let out a tired chuckle and Crow sighed. “You are going to make the rest of my hair turn white from worry, aren’t you?”

Spec and Lurien both started laughing. “Probably?” Spec chuckled, “I apologize in advance.”

“It won’t be that bad, right Glint?”

“Weeeeeeellllllll.”

Lurien started to wheeze he was laughing so hard, only to try and stop as it made his ribs and head hurt. 

“Okay, let's get you back to your ship.” Crow said grumpily, but Lurien could see the grin he was hiding.

“Crow?”  
  
“Hmm?”

“I don’t have any alcohol or a bonfire but, congrats on your freedom.”


	11. Making Plans

“Hullo, Guardian.”

Lurien yelped as he jolted awake. A stab of panic shot through him as he rushed to sit up only to hit his head on the roof of his ship’s interior with a resounding ring of metal that knocked him off his small bed and onto the floor. Ow. 

Muffled snickering from above him drew Lurien’s attention. Cracking open an eye he saw Crow covering his mouth as he sat on Lurien’s bed, eyes alight with laughter. 

“Guardian?”

Moving his gaze to what he could see of his cockpit controls from his spot laid out on the floor Lurien could see his radio displaying Zavala on caller ID. Oh. Thank the Light it was just a call. For a second he almost could have sworn the Vanguard Commander was actually in his ship. 

“We’re here Commander.” Spec answered professionally as his guardian rolled himself over on the floor. “Your call woke up us.”

“I see…” There was a pause which only made Lurien turn more purple the longer it went on. Did Zavala hear him yelp? Crow’s snickering turned to breathless wheezing as he tried to keep quiet. “I was wondering why the two of you never reported in yesterday.”

Lurien stared wide eyed at Spec as a new wave of mortification washed through him. They had both forgotten that their requested leave was over when Crow told them he’d found the Celebrant. He covered his face with his hands and started to mentally go through every bit of profanity he knew.

“That would probably be our fault Commander.” Glint spoke up.

Zavala was silent for a bit and then, “Ah, are you the ‘Associate on loan from Spider’ I’ve been hearing about?”

“I’m his ghost.” Glint admitted, and from how much his shell was twitching it seemed like he was regretting speaking up. “C-” Lurien and Spec frantically gestured ‘no!’ “-My guardian and I managed to track down the High Celebrant of Xivu Arath yesterday and they offered to help. Osiris was in contact with us throughout, I assumed he was keeping you updated on the matter.”

“Hmm.” Oh, so they were on the same page when it came to throwing Osiris under the Cabal Drop Pod? Sounded good to him.

“I take it that the High Celebrant can be marked as eliminated?” Zavala asked.

“Yup. And we wouldn’t have been able to do it without our friends’ help.” Spec chimed in while Glint hummed a proud affirmative. Crow meanwhile had a faint purple tinge to his cheeks as he stubbornly stared at a corner of the ship with nothing in it.

No answer, and then a low mutter that the mic barely picked up “... _Dear Light there’s_ two _of him._ ”

Wait what? Lurien split his fingers to peek up at the radio as if he’d be able to actually see Zavala’s expression through the caller ID photo “Sir?” Spec asked hesitantly.

“Please, at least tell me your friend isn’t another warlock.” Zavala said dryly.

“Oh, he’s definitely a hunter.” Spec said with a laugh.

Silence.

Then there was a shuffling of papers, “Very well then. With the elimination of the High Celebrant-” Did he just change the subject? “-the cryptoliths will be a problem for another day. Thank you both for your service. Even if it was unofficial.”

He changed the subject, Lurien thought dazedly.

“Ghost.”

“Yes?” “Yes?” Both Spec and Glint replied simultaneously.

The sigh that came from Zavala this time seemed almost pained, “Hunter’s Ghost.” He clarified flatly, “When will you and your guardian be reporting to the Tower?”

Glint looked to Crow who shrugged with wide eyes.

“When they’re ready.” Spec interrupted. “They only just recently broke from Spider and I think they deserve as much of a chance to-” He paused to search for a fitting word, “-Adjust- I think, as they can while current events allow them.”

Zavala’s answering hum was contemplative, “Understandable. With that taken into account I am going to grant you the rest of the month off. It’s clear to me that you didn’t use the last term of leave for its intended purpose so this time it will actually be enforced.”

That… didn’t sound good.

“Guardian. No more strike operations, or crucible matches for the rest of the month.” Oh no. “I will be notifying all patrol zone operators as well.” _Oh no._ “Spend some time with your friend, walk through the City with Saint so he’ll stop asking me if you’re open, and get some actual rest.”

Zavala, no. Please.

“If an emergency comes up I’ll notify you. But until then, I’ll see you next month.”

The radio cut off.

“A reprieve!” Glint cheered, “And for two whole weeks!”

Lurien covered his face again and groaned.

“Isn’t a vacation a good thing?” Crow asked dubiously.

“We all know Ren’s a workaholic.” Spec deadpanned, “He’ll organize his ship, organize his vault, and then go stir-crazy within the hour. Leave it to Zavala to give a reward and punishment at the same time.”

Lurien sent his ghost a pout, he wasn’t that bad. Two hours, _then_ he’d go stir-crazy.

“Although….” Crow spoke up, sitting up to lean over Lurien, “Keeping us secret from the Vanguard Commander huh?”

He grinned, mischief dancing across his face, “Do you want to keep us all to yourself? I don’t blame you.”

Lurien sputtered, “No?! I just- I- I wanted to give you as much time to decide when or if you wanted to go and if not there wouldn’t be enough on file to track you down or anything.”

Crow’s wide grin softened, “I figured as much, but I had to get revenge.”

Lurien swallowed thickly as he ignored the initial feeling of being punched in the gut at another of Crow’s unknowing references to his past life. By now though he’d had enough practice ignoring those moments that it only hung him up for a second.

He sent Crow a curious look.

Crow pointed to his cloak, “You drooled on me last night.” he deadpanned.

Lurien’s face flushed a deep purple so quickly it made Crow laugh until he was wiping tears from his eyes. 

He didn’t remember much of what happened the previous night after Crow had forced him into his ship. Lurien’s bed had been the only place to sit in it, even the floor he was currently laying on was really just the landing ramp in the undeployed position. They’d decided to just sit down on it together while Spec caught Crow and Glint up on the events that happened on Europa. At one point Lurien had leaned against Crow and apparently fallen asleep.

“Well, at least I now have time to help find a way to get that bomb out of Glint.” He sighed.

“No need.” Crow said gleefully. “Spider sent a mechanic while you were asleep. He followed through surprisingly quickly on that, almost makes me thing he has something to gain”

“He gains his continued existence.” Lurien muttered darkly.

Crow paused to shoot him a look of fond exasperation, “But we’re well and truly free now, although I think I’ll stick around, just for a little while. Clear out the remaining wrathborn so the cryptoliths decay… That’ll probably take a few weeks, possibly months.”

“But while I can get things started you Tower Guardians can handle the rest. I’ve earned my freedom, and I intend to enjoy it.” Crow finished with a grin.

Lurien was so happy for his friend. But he knew this was only another beginning for Crow, and he had pieced together enough of what Crow had mentioned of his past to paint a rather bleak picture. He couldn’t always be at Crow’s side nor should he. He knew Crow could easily handle himself but he also shouldn’t have too.

He hadn’t forgotten how Crow had flinched when Lurien first threw a healing orb at him.

There had to be some way to help him in case Crow came across a hostile Lightbearer even if he wasn’t there… maybe? He had an idea.

“Crow?”

“Hmm?”

Lurien got up off the floor of his ship and grabbed a datapad before he sat down next to Crow. “I want you to have this.”

He tapped on the icon he’d been looking for on the datapad and Traveler’s Chosen materialized in hand.

“It’s a sidearm,” Lurien admitted as he turned it over in his hands, “But… it’s the same piddly little sidearm that kept me alive after the Red Legion caged the Traveler and took our Light.”

His hand curled around the grip and he could vividly remember holding the same grip till his hand shook, he could remember staggering over the mountains, and he remembered holding the small sidearm to the heads of Cabal war hounds with one hand while desperately trying to keep their teeth off of him with the other. 

Lurien blinked back to the present as Crow gave his shoulder a gentle bump with his own. “It was… changed, when the Traveler repaired itself. But it should be recognizable enough to send a message if you use it.”

Crow blinked, “Recognizable how?”

Lurien grinned as he grabbed Crow’s hand and wrapped it around the grip. 

“Don’t panic.” He warned, and then pushed his Light into the gun.

Crow gasped as the previously unseen cracks in the gun light up with an almost opalescent gleam of raw Light. 

“It generates Light with each kill. And when it has enough… Tighten your hold,” Lurien instructed, “Just like consuming your own healing Light.” 

Crow’s eyes flickered between Lurien and the sidearm before he tightened his hold on the grip. The Light escaped from where it was barely contained in the gun and swirled around his hand before sinking into his skin. 

Lurien could hear Crow’s sharp intake of breath before he redirected the influx of Light to summon up a knife of condensed Solar energy. Lurien grinned sheepishly when he saw it, the blade looking more like a mini Dawnblade than the traditional Hunter’s knife, no doubt his and Osiris’ influence. But it shined with a steady glow and flame licking up it, no flickering, no fuzzy edges. 

Crow had come a long way, and the confidence with which he called it forth suited him. 

With a flick of his fingers the blade vanished. “I can’t accept this.” He said quietly.

“Then you can return it when it’s not needed anymore.” Lurien told him before looking for their suspiciously quiet ghosts.

Glint’s shell was slack, the ghost equivalent of a gaping mouth while Spec’s eye gleamed with pride that Lurien could feel through their bond. 

“I know not every Guardian you come across is… friendly.” He said as he turned back to look at Crow. “But with this they’ll know you aren’t alone anymore. And that I’ll personally shove a Dawnblade up their ass if-”

“Ren.” Crow’s voice was thick as he swallowed. He was silent for a bit before “Please do not start fights with other Guardians for my sake.”

“No promises.” Lurien deadpanned.

“Ren. You lose fights with carpet folds.”

“The Architects of the world are my most deadly adversary.” He replied with mock seriousness.

“Ren…. Thank you.”

“Oh! I can say this now!” Spec perked up. “I’ve been holding back since we found your Crow’s Nest.”

“It’s not a nest.”

Spec ignored him and zoomed over to gently bump against Crow’s cheek. “Welcome to the Wolf Pack!”

Lurien groaned, “I do not have a ‘Wolf Pack’.”

“Wolf Pack?” Crow echoed, “The Wolf thing sounds… familiar. Maybe I can-”

He paused, then gave Lurien a very unamused look. “You finally give me hints about yourself and it’s when I no longer have access to Spider’s archives.”

Lurien chuckled as he brought his hands up in surrender while Spec and Glint burst with laughter. “If you want me to tell you I will. I’m just not used to having to tell anyone about myself so I kinda… forget?”

He leaned back against the wall of his ship with an embarrassed flush to his cheeks.

“Maybe later.” Crow said. “I can always ask Glint as he seems to know.” Glint stopped laughing, “But now it almost feels like a challenge to put all those clues together.”

Crow focused his attention back on the sidearm still in his hands, slowly turning it over and running his fingers over where the cracks of light would be visible. Eventually he lingered on the symbol of the Vanguard painted on the side.

“Perhaps one day.” He murmured.

“Well, then I guess I know how to use some of my vacation time then.” Lurien said with a grin, “Finding all the good restaurants and other places to show you.”

Crow’s soft laughter warmed his heart.

Lurien just hoped his old sidearm kept his friend safe like it had him.

“So… need any help with those wrathborn?”

“Somehow, I think Spec would find a way to kill me if I made you work while you’re on vacation.”

“You wouldn’t be ‘making’ me.”

“Ren.”


End file.
